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1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?> | |
2 | <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> | |
3 | <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> | |
4 | <head> | |
5 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> | |
6 | <meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.3.1: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/" /> | |
7 | <title>The wxPython Manual</title> | |
8 | <meta name="author" content="Patrick K. O'Brien" /> | |
9 | <meta name="organization" content="Orbtech" /> | |
10 | <meta name="date" content="2003-07-02" /> | |
11 | <link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css" type="text/css" /> | |
12 | </head> | |
13 | <body> | |
14 | <div class="document" id="the-wxpython-manual"> | |
15 | <h1 class="title">The wxPython Manual</h1> | |
16 | <h2 class="subtitle" id="a-guide-to-wxpython-for-python-programmers">A guide to wxPython for Python programmers</h2> | |
17 | <table class="docinfo" frame="void" rules="none"> | |
18 | <col class="docinfo-name" /> | |
19 | <col class="docinfo-content" /> | |
20 | <tbody valign="top"> | |
21 | <tr><th class="docinfo-name">Author:</th> | |
22 | <td>Patrick K. O'Brien</td></tr> | |
23 | <tr><th class="docinfo-name">Contact:</th> | |
24 | <td><a class="first last reference" href="mailto:pobrien@orbtech.com">pobrien@orbtech.com</a></td></tr> | |
25 | <tr><th class="docinfo-name">Organization:</th> | |
26 | <td><a class="first last reference" href="http://www.orbtech.com/">Orbtech</a></td></tr> | |
27 | <tr><th class="docinfo-name">Date:</th> | |
28 | <td>2003-07-02</td></tr> | |
29 | <tr><th class="docinfo-name">Revision:</th> | |
30 | <td>1.2</td></tr> | |
31 | <tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">License:</th><td class="field-body">wxWindows Free Documentation Licence, Version 3</td> | |
32 | </tr> | |
33 | </tbody> | |
34 | </table> | |
35 | <div class="contents topic" id="contents"> | |
36 | <p class="topic-title"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p> | |
37 | <ul class="simple"> | |
38 | <li><a class="reference" href="#introduction" id="id1" name="id1">Introduction</a></li> | |
39 | <li><a class="reference" href="#what-is-wxpython" id="id2" name="id2">What is wxPython?</a></li> | |
40 | <li><a class="reference" href="#wxpython-requirements" id="id3" name="id3">wxPython requirements</a><ul> | |
41 | <li><a class="reference" href="#ms-windows" id="id4" name="id4">MS-Windows</a></li> | |
42 | <li><a class="reference" href="#linux-or-unix" id="id5" name="id5">Linux or Unix</a></li> | |
43 | <li><a class="reference" href="#mac-os-x" id="id6" name="id6">Mac OS X</a></li> | |
44 | </ul> | |
45 | </li> | |
46 | <li><a class="reference" href="#what-is-wxwindows" id="id7" name="id7">What is wxWindows?</a></li> | |
47 | <li><a class="reference" href="#why-another-cross-platform-development-tool" id="id8" name="id8">Why another cross-platform development tool?</a></li> | |
48 | <li><a class="reference" href="#wxpython-overview" id="id9" name="id9">wxPython Overview</a></li> | |
49 | <li><a class="reference" href="#utilities-and-libraries-supplied-with-wxpython" id="id10" name="id10">Utilities and libraries supplied with wxPython</a></li> | |
50 | <li><a class="reference" href="#creating-and-deleting-wxpython-objects" id="id11" name="id11">Creating and deleting wxPython objects</a></li> | |
51 | <li><a class="reference" href="#app-overview" id="id12" name="id12">App overview</a><ul> | |
52 | <li><a class="reference" href="#application-initialization" id="id13" name="id13">Application initialization</a></li> | |
53 | <li><a class="reference" href="#application-shutdown" id="id14" name="id14">Application shutdown</a></li> | |
54 | </ul> | |
55 | </li> | |
56 | <li><a class="reference" href="#sizer-overview" id="id15" name="id15">Sizer overview</a><ul> | |
57 | <li><a class="reference" href="#the-idea-behind-sizers" id="id16" name="id16">The idea behind sizers</a></li> | |
58 | <li><a class="reference" href="#common-features" id="id17" name="id17">Common features</a><ul> | |
59 | <li><a class="reference" href="#a-minimal-size" id="id18" name="id18">A minimal size</a></li> | |
60 | <li><a class="reference" href="#a-border" id="id19" name="id19">A border</a></li> | |
61 | <li><a class="reference" href="#an-alignment" id="id20" name="id20">An alignment</a></li> | |
62 | <li><a class="reference" href="#a-stretch-factor" id="id21" name="id21">A stretch factor</a></li> | |
63 | </ul> | |
64 | </li> | |
65 | <li><a class="reference" href="#boxsizer" id="id22" name="id22">BoxSizer</a></li> | |
66 | <li><a class="reference" href="#staticboxsizer" id="id23" name="id23">StaticBoxSizer</a></li> | |
67 | <li><a class="reference" href="#gridsizer" id="id24" name="id24">GridSizer</a></li> | |
68 | <li><a class="reference" href="#flexgridsizer" id="id25" name="id25">FlexGridSizer</a></li> | |
69 | <li><a class="reference" href="#notebooksizer" id="id26" name="id26">NotebookSizer</a></li> | |
70 | <li><a class="reference" href="#programming-with-boxsizer" id="id27" name="id27">Programming with BoxSizer</a></li> | |
71 | <li><a class="reference" href="#programming-with-gridsizer" id="id28" name="id28">Programming with GridSizer</a></li> | |
72 | <li><a class="reference" href="#programming-with-flexgridsizer" id="id29" name="id29">Programming with FlexGridSizer</a></li> | |
73 | <li><a class="reference" href="#programming-with-notebooksizer" id="id30" name="id30">Programming with NotebookSizer</a></li> | |
74 | <li><a class="reference" href="#programming-with-staticboxsizer" id="id31" name="id31">Programming with StaticBoxSizer</a></li> | |
75 | <li><a class="reference" href="#dialog-createbuttonsizer" id="id32" name="id32">Dialog.CreateButtonSizer</a></li> | |
76 | </ul> | |
77 | </li> | |
78 | <li><a class="reference" href="#date-and-time-classes-overview" id="id33" name="id33">Date and time classes overview</a><ul> | |
79 | <li><a class="reference" href="#all-date-time-classes-at-a-glance" id="id34" name="id34">All date/time classes at a glance</a></li> | |
80 | <li><a class="reference" href="#datetime-characteristics" id="id35" name="id35">DateTime characteristics</a></li> | |
81 | <li><a class="reference" href="#difference-between-datespan-and-timespan" id="id36" name="id36">Difference between DateSpan and TimeSpan</a></li> | |
82 | <li><a class="reference" href="#date-arithmetics" id="id37" name="id37">Date arithmetics</a></li> | |
83 | <li><a class="reference" href="#time-zone-considerations" id="id38" name="id38">Time zone considerations</a></li> | |
84 | <li><a class="reference" href="#daylight-saving-time-dst" id="id39" name="id39">Daylight saving time (DST)</a></li> | |
85 | <li><a class="reference" href="#datetime-and-holidays" id="id40" name="id40">DateTime and Holidays</a></li> | |
86 | </ul> | |
87 | </li> | |
88 | <li><a class="reference" href="#classes-by-category" id="id41" name="id41">Classes by category</a></li> | |
89 | <li><a class="reference" href="#id-constants" id="id42" name="id42">ID constants</a></li> | |
90 | <li><a class="reference" href="#source-document" id="id43" name="id43">Source document</a></li> | |
91 | <li><a class="reference" href="#submitting-changes-to-the-source-document" id="id44" name="id44">Submitting changes to the source document</a></li> | |
92 | <li><a class="reference" href="#contributors" id="id45" name="id45">Contributors</a></li> | |
93 | <li><a class="reference" href="#license" id="id46" name="id46">License</a></li> | |
94 | </ul> | |
95 | </div> | |
96 | <div class="section" id="introduction"> | |
97 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1" name="introduction">Introduction</a></h1> | |
98 | <p>This is a guide to the wxPython GUI toolkit, written <strong>by</strong> a Python | |
99 | programmer <strong>for</strong> his fellow Python programmers. It began as a | |
100 | simple translation of the wxWindows documentation (which is written | |
101 | for C++ programmers), and evolved from there. And while there's | |
102 | nothing wrong with C++...</p> | |
103 | <p>Okay, you got me there. I hate C++. That's why I use Python. If you | |
104 | like C++, go read the wxWindows documentation. If you'd rather read a | |
105 | guide that's written with Python programmers in mind, keep reading | |
106 | this one. If you like it, feel free to send me freshly roasted coffee | |
107 | beans, dark chocolate, and large denomination currency. Better yet, | |
108 | buy huge quantities of my wxPython book (written with Robin Dunn) and | |
109 | send one to each of your friends, relatives, and coworkers.</p> | |
110 | </div> | |
111 | <div class="section" id="what-is-wxpython"> | |
112 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2" name="what-is-wxpython">What is wxPython?</a></h1> | |
113 | <p>wxPython is a GUI toolkit for the Python programming language. It | |
114 | allows Python programmers to create programs with a robust, highly | |
115 | functional graphical user interface, simply and easily. It is | |
116 | implemented as a Python extension module (native code) that wraps the | |
117 | popular wxWindows cross platform GUI library, which is written in C++.</p> | |
118 | <p>Like Python and wxWindows, wxPython is Open Source, which means that | |
119 | it is free for anyone to use and the source code is available for | |
120 | anyone to look at and modify. And anyone can contribute fixes or | |
121 | enhnacments to the project.</p> | |
122 | <p>wxPython is a cross-platform toolkit. This means that the same | |
123 | program will run on multiple platforms without modification. | |
124 | Currently supported platforms are 32-bit Microsoft Windows, most Unix | |
125 | or unix-like systems, and Macintosh OS X.</p> | |
126 | <p>Since the language is Python, wxPython programs are simple, easy to | |
127 | write and easy to understand.</p> | |
128 | </div> | |
129 | <div class="section" id="wxpython-requirements"> | |
130 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" name="wxpython-requirements">wxPython requirements</a></h1> | |
131 | <p>To make use of wxPython, you currently need one of the following | |
132 | setups.</p> | |
133 | <div class="section" id="ms-windows"> | |
134 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" name="ms-windows">MS-Windows</a></h2> | |
135 | <ul class="simple"> | |
136 | <li>A 486 or higher PC running MS Windows.</li> | |
137 | <li>At least ?? MB of disk space.</li> | |
138 | </ul> | |
139 | </div> | |
140 | <div class="section" id="linux-or-unix"> | |
141 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" name="linux-or-unix">Linux or Unix</a></h2> | |
142 | <ul class="simple"> | |
143 | <li>Almost any C++ compiler, including GNU C++ (EGCS 1.1.1 or above).</li> | |
144 | <li>Almost any Unix workstation, and one of: GTK+ 1.2, GTK+ 2.0, Motif | |
145 | 1.2 or higher, Lesstif.</li> | |
146 | <li>At least ?? MB of disk space.</li> | |
147 | </ul> | |
148 | </div> | |
149 | <div class="section" id="mac-os-x"> | |
150 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" name="mac-os-x">Mac OS X</a></h2> | |
151 | <ul class="simple"> | |
152 | <li>A PowerPC Mac running Mac OS X 10.x.</li> | |
153 | <li>At least ?? MB of disk space.</li> | |
154 | </ul> | |
155 | </div> | |
156 | </div> | |
157 | <div class="section" id="what-is-wxwindows"> | |
158 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" name="what-is-wxwindows">What is wxWindows?</a></h1> | |
159 | <p>wxWindows is a C++ framework providing GUI (Graphical User Interface) | |
160 | and other facilities on more than one platform. Version 2 currently | |
161 | supports all desktop versions of MS Windows, Unix with GTK+, Unix with | |
162 | Motif, and MacOS. An OS/2 port is in progress.</p> | |
163 | <p>wxWindows was originally developed at the Artificial Intelligence | |
164 | Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, for internal use, and | |
165 | was first made publicly available in 1992. Version 2 is a vastly | |
166 | improved version written and maintained by Julian Smart, Robert | |
167 | Roebling, Vadim Zeitlin, Vaclav Slavik and many others.</p> | |
168 | <p>Please note that in the following, "MS Windows" often refers to all | |
169 | platforms related to Microsoft Windows, including 16-bit and 32-bit | |
170 | variants, unless otherwise stated. All trademarks are acknowledged.</p> | |
171 | </div> | |
172 | <div class="section" id="why-another-cross-platform-development-tool"> | |
173 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" name="why-another-cross-platform-development-tool">Why another cross-platform development tool?</a></h1> | |
174 | <p>wxWindows was developed to provide a cheap and flexible way to | |
175 | maximize investment in GUI application development. While a number of | |
176 | commercial class libraries already existed for cross-platform | |
177 | development, none met all of the following criteria:</p> | |
178 | <ul class="simple"> | |
179 | <li>low price</li> | |
180 | <li>source availability</li> | |
181 | <li>simplicity of programming</li> | |
182 | <li>support for a wide range of compilers</li> | |
183 | </ul> | |
184 | <p>Since wxWindows was started, several other free or almost-free GUI | |
185 | frameworks have emerged. However, none has the range of features, | |
186 | flexibility, documentation and the well-established development team | |
187 | that wxWindows has.</p> | |
188 | <p>As open source software, wxWindows has benefited from comments, ideas, | |
189 | bug fixes, enhancements and the sheer enthusiasm of users. This gives | |
190 | wxWindows a certain advantage over its commercial competitors (and | |
191 | over free libraries without an independent development team), plus a | |
192 | robustness against the transience of one individual or company. This | |
193 | openness and availability of source code is especially important when | |
194 | the future of thousands of lines of application code may depend upon | |
195 | the longevity of the underlying class library.</p> | |
196 | <p>Version 2 goes much further than previous versions in terms of | |
197 | generality and features, allowing applications to be produced that are | |
198 | often indistinguishable from those produced using single-platform | |
199 | toolkits such as Motif, GTK+ and MFC.</p> | |
200 | <p>The importance of using a platform-independent class library cannot be | |
201 | overstated, since GUI application development is very time-consuming, | |
202 | and sustained popularity of particular GUIs cannot be guaranteed. | |
203 | Code can very quickly become obsolete if it addresses the wrong | |
204 | platform or audience. wxWindows helps to insulate the programmer from | |
205 | these winds of change. Although wxWindows may not be suitable for | |
206 | every application (such as an OLE-intensive program), it provides | |
207 | access to most of the functionality a GUI program normally requires, | |
208 | plus many extras such as network programming, PostScript output, and | |
209 | HTML rendering; and it can of course be extended as needs dictate. As | |
210 | a bonus, it provides a far cleaner and easier programming interface | |
211 | than the native APIs. Programmers may find it worthwhile to use | |
212 | wxWindows even if they are developing on only one platform.</p> | |
213 | <p>It is impossible to sum up the functionality of wxWindows in a few | |
214 | paragraphs, but here are some of the benefits:</p> | |
215 | <ul class="simple"> | |
216 | <li>Low cost (free, in fact!)</li> | |
217 | <li>You get the source.</li> | |
218 | <li>Available on a variety of popular platforms.</li> | |
219 | <li>Works with almost all popular C++ compilers and Python.</li> | |
220 | <li>Over 50 example programs.</li> | |
221 | <li>Over 1000 pages of printable and on-line documentation.</li> | |
222 | <li>Includes Tex2RTF, to allow you to produce your own documentation in | |
223 | Windows Help, HTML and Word RTF formats.</li> | |
224 | <li>Simple-to-use, object-oriented API.</li> | |
225 | <li>Flexible event system.</li> | |
226 | <li>Graphics calls include lines, rounded rectangles, splines, | |
227 | polylines, etc.</li> | |
228 | <li>Constraint-based and sizer-based layouts.</li> | |
229 | <li>Print/preview and document/view architectures.</li> | |
230 | <li>Toolbar, notebook, tree control, advanced list control classes.</li> | |
231 | <li>PostScript generation under Unix, normal MS Windows printing on the | |
232 | PC.</li> | |
233 | <li>MDI (Multiple Document Interface) support.</li> | |
234 | <li>Can be used to create DLLs under Windows, dynamic libraries on Unix.</li> | |
235 | <li>Common dialogs for file browsing, printing, colour selection, etc.</li> | |
236 | <li>Under MS Windows, support for creating metafiles and copying them to | |
237 | the clipboard.</li> | |
238 | <li>An API for invoking help from applications.</li> | |
239 | <li>Ready-to-use HTML window (supporting a subset of HTML).</li> | |
240 | <li>Dialog Editor for building dialogs.</li> | |
241 | <li>Network support via a family of socket and protocol classes.</li> | |
242 | <li>Support for platform independent image processing.</li> | |
243 | <li>Built-in support for many file formats (BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, XPM, | |
244 | PNM, PCX).</li> | |
245 | </ul> | |
246 | </div> | |
247 | <div class="section" id="wxpython-overview"> | |
248 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="wxpython-overview">wxPython Overview</a></h1> | |
249 | <p>To set a wxPython application going, you will need to derive an App | |
250 | class and override App.OnInit.</p> | |
251 | <p>An application must have a top-level Frame or Dialog window. Each | |
252 | frame may contain one or more instances of classes such as Panel, | |
253 | SplitterWindow or other windows and controls.</p> | |
254 | <p>A frame can have a MenuBar, a ToolBar, a status line, and an Icon for | |
255 | when the frame is iconized.</p> | |
256 | <p>A Panel is used to place controls (classes derived from Control) which | |
257 | are used for user interaction. Examples of controls are Button, | |
258 | CheckBox, Choice, ListBox, RadioBox, Slider.</p> | |
259 | <p>Instances of Dialog can also be used for controls, and they have the | |
260 | advantage of not requiring a separate frame.</p> | |
261 | <p>Instead of creating a dialog box and populating it with items, it is | |
262 | possible to choose one of the convenient common dialog classes, such | |
263 | as MessageDialog and FileDialog.</p> | |
264 | <p>You never draw directly onto a window. Instead, you use a device | |
265 | context (DC). DC is the base for ClientDC, PaintDC, MemoryDC, | |
266 | PostScriptDC, MemoryDC, MetafileDC and PrinterDC. If your drawing | |
267 | functions have DC as a parameter, you can pass any of these DCs to the | |
268 | function, and thus use the same code to draw to several different | |
269 | devices. You can draw using the member functions of DC, such as | |
270 | DC.DrawLine and DC.DrawText. Control colour on a window (Colour) with | |
271 | brushes (Brush) and pens (Pen).</p> | |
272 | <!-- To intercept events, you add a DECLARE_EVENT_TABLE macro to the | |
273 | window class declaration, and put a BEGIN_EVENT_TABLE | |
274 | ... END_EVENT_TABLE block in the implementation file. Between these | |
275 | macros, you add event macros which map the event (such as a mouse | |
276 | click) to a member function. These might override predefined event | |
277 | handlers such as for KeyEvent and MouseEvent. --> | |
278 | <p>Most modern applications will have an on-line, hypertext help system; | |
279 | for this, you need Help and the HelpController class to control | |
280 | Help.</p> | |
281 | <p>GUI applications aren't all graphical wizardry. You'll also need | |
282 | lists and hash tables. But since you're working with Python, you | |
283 | should use the ones Python provides (list, tuple, dict), rather than | |
284 | the wxWindows versions. Same goes for the database related classes. | |
285 | The basic rule of thumb is this: If you can do it directly in Python, | |
286 | you probably should. If there is a reason not to use a Python data | |
287 | type, wxPython will provide a wrapper for the wxWindows class.</p> | |
288 | <p>You will undoubtedly need some platform-independent file functions, | |
289 | and you may find it handy to maintain and search a list of paths using | |
290 | PathList. There's a miscellany of operating system and other | |
291 | functions.</p> | |
292 | <p>See also Classes by Category for a list of classes.</p> | |
293 | </div> | |
294 | <div class="section" id="utilities-and-libraries-supplied-with-wxpython"> | |
295 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="utilities-and-libraries-supplied-with-wxpython">Utilities and libraries supplied with wxPython</a></h1> | |
296 | <p>In addition to the core wxWindows library, a number of further | |
297 | libraries and utilities are supplied with each distribution.</p> | |
298 | <p>[Need to list these.]</p> | |
299 | </div> | |
300 | <div class="section" id="creating-and-deleting-wxpython-objects"> | |
301 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="creating-and-deleting-wxpython-objects">Creating and deleting wxPython objects</a></h1> | |
302 | <p>[This section needs to be reviewed.]</p> | |
303 | <!-- In general, classes derived from wxWindow must dynamically | |
304 | allocated with new and deleted with delete. If you delete a window, | |
305 | all of its children and descendants will be automatically deleted, | |
306 | so you don't need to delete these descendants explicitly. --> | |
307 | <!-- When deleting a frame or dialog, use Destroy rather than delete so | |
308 | that the wxWindows delayed deletion can take effect. This waits | |
309 | until idle time (when all messages have been processed) to actually | |
310 | delete the window, to avoid problems associated with the GUI | |
311 | sending events to deleted windows. --> | |
312 | <!-- If you decide to allocate a C++ array of objects (such as wxBitmap) | |
313 | that may be cleaned up by wxWindows, make sure you delete the array | |
314 | explicitly before wxWindows has a chance to do so on exit, since | |
315 | calling delete on array members will cause memory problems. --> | |
316 | <!-- wxColour can be created statically: it is not automatically cleaned | |
317 | up and is unlikely to be shared between other objects; it is | |
318 | lightweight enough for copies to be made. --> | |
319 | <!-- Beware of deleting objects such as a wxPen or wxBitmap if they are | |
320 | still in use. Windows is particularly sensitive to this: so make | |
321 | sure you make calls like wxDC::SetPen(wxNullPen) or | |
322 | wxDC::SelectObject(wxNullBitmap) before deleting a drawing object | |
323 | that may be in use. Code that doesn't do this will probably work | |
324 | fine on some platforms, and then fail under Windows. --> | |
325 | </div> | |
326 | <div class="section" id="app-overview"> | |
327 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="app-overview">App overview</a></h1> | |
328 | <p>Classes: wx.App</p> | |
329 | <div class="section" id="application-initialization"> | |
330 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="application-initialization">Application initialization</a></h2> | |
331 | <p>The OnInit method defined for a class derived from wx.App will usually | |
332 | create a top window as a bare minimum.</p> | |
333 | <p>OnInit must return a boolean value to indicate whether processing | |
334 | should continue (True) or not (False). You call App.SetTopWindow to | |
335 | let wxPython know about the top window.</p> | |
336 | <p>An application closes by destroying all windows. Because all frames | |
337 | must be destroyed for the application to exit, it is advisable to use | |
338 | parent frames wherever possible when creating new frames, so that | |
339 | deleting the top level frame will automatically delete child frames. | |
340 | The alternative is to explicitly delete child frames in the top-level | |
341 | frame's CloseEvent handler.</p> | |
342 | <p>In emergencies the wx.Exit() function can be called to kill the | |
343 | application, however, normally the application shuts down | |
344 | automatically, see below.</p> | |
345 | <p>An example of defining an application follows:</p> | |
346 | <pre class="literal-block"> | |
347 | import wx | |
348 | ||
349 | from frame import Frame | |
350 | ||
351 | class App(wx.App): | |
352 | """Application class.""" | |
353 | ||
354 | def OnInit(self): | |
355 | self.frame = Frame() | |
356 | self.frame.Show() | |
357 | self.SetTopWindow(self.frame) | |
358 | return True | |
359 | ||
360 | def main(): | |
361 | app = App() | |
362 | app.MainLoop() | |
363 | ||
364 | if __name__ == '__main__': | |
365 | main() | |
366 | </pre> | |
367 | </div> | |
368 | <div class="section" id="application-shutdown"> | |
369 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="application-shutdown">Application shutdown</a></h2> | |
370 | <p>The application normally shuts down when the last of its top level | |
371 | windows is closed. This is normally the expected behaviour and means | |
372 | that it is enough to call Close() in response to the "Exit" menu | |
373 | command if your program has a single top level window. If this | |
374 | behaviour is not desirable, App.SetExitOnFrameDelete can be called to | |
375 | change it. Note that such logic doesn't apply for the windows shown | |
376 | before the program enters the main loop: in other words, you can | |
377 | safely show a dialog from App.OnInit and not be afraid that your | |
378 | application terminates when this dialog -- which is the last top level | |
379 | window for the moment -- is closed.</p> | |
380 | <p>Another aspect of the application shutdown is the OnExit which is | |
381 | called when the application exits but before wxPython cleans up its | |
382 | internal structures. You should delete all wxPython objects that you | |
383 | created by the time OnExit finishes.</p> | |
384 | <p>For example, this code may crash:</p> | |
385 | <p>[Need examples of objects needing cleanup to keep app from crashing.]</p> | |
386 | </div> | |
387 | </div> | |
388 | <div class="section" id="sizer-overview"> | |
389 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="sizer-overview">Sizer overview</a></h1> | |
390 | <p>Classes: wx.Sizer, wx.GridSizer, wx.FlexGridSizer, wx.BoxSizer, | |
391 | wx.StaticBoxSizer, wx.NotebookSizer, wx.CreateButtonSizer</p> | |
392 | <table border class="table"> | |
393 | <colgroup> | |
394 | <col width="21%" /> | |
395 | <col width="79%" /> | |
396 | </colgroup> | |
397 | <tbody valign="top"> | |
398 | <tr><td>Sizer</td> | |
399 | <td>Abstract base class.</td> | |
400 | </tr> | |
401 | <tr><td>GridSizer</td> | |
402 | <td>A sizer for laying out windows in a grid with all | |
403 | fields having the same size.</td> | |
404 | </tr> | |
405 | <tr><td>FlexGridSizer</td> | |
406 | <td>A sizer for laying out windows in a flexible grid.</td> | |
407 | </tr> | |
408 | <tr><td>BoxSizer</td> | |
409 | <td>A sizer for laying out windows in a row or column.</td> | |
410 | </tr> | |
411 | <tr><td>StaticBoxSizer</td> | |
412 | <td>Same as BoxSizer, but with a surrounding static box.</td> | |
413 | </tr> | |
414 | <tr><td>NotebookSizer</td> | |
415 | <td>Sizer to use with the Notebook control.</td> | |
416 | </tr> | |
417 | </tbody> | |
418 | </table> | |
419 | <p>Sizers, as represented by the wx.Sizer class and its descendants in | |
420 | the wxPython class hierarchy, have become the method of choice to | |
421 | define the layout of controls in dialogs in wxPython because of their | |
422 | ability to create visually appealing dialogs independent of the | |
423 | platform, taking into account the differences in size and style of the | |
424 | individual controls. Editors such as wxDesigner, wxrcedit, XRCed and | |
425 | wxWorkshop create dialogs based exclusively on sizers, practically | |
426 | forcing the user to create platform independent layouts without | |
427 | compromises.</p> | |
428 | <div class="section" id="the-idea-behind-sizers"> | |
429 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16" name="the-idea-behind-sizers">The idea behind sizers</a></h2> | |
430 | <p>The layout algorithm used by sizers in wxPython is closely related to | |
431 | layout systems in other GUI toolkits, such as Java's AWT, the GTK | |
432 | toolkit or the Qt toolkit. It is based upon the idea of individual | |
433 | subwindows reporting their minimal required size and their ability to | |
434 | get stretched if the size of the parent window has changed. This will | |
435 | most often mean that the programmer does not set the start-up size of | |
436 | a dialog, the dialog will rather be assigned a sizer and this sizer | |
437 | will be queried about the recommended size. This sizer in turn will | |
438 | query its children (which can be normal windows, empty space or other | |
439 | sizers) so that a hierarchy of sizers can be constructed. Note that | |
440 | wx.Sizer does not derive from wx.Window and thus does not interfere | |
441 | with tab ordering and requires very few resources compared to a real | |
442 | window on screen.</p> | |
443 | <p>What makes sizers so well fitted for use in wxPython is the fact that | |
444 | every control reports its own minimal size and the algorithm can | |
445 | handle differences in font sizes or different window (dialog item) | |
446 | sizes on different platforms without problems. For example, if the | |
447 | standard font as well as the overall design of Linux/GTK widgets | |
448 | requires more space than on Windows, the initial dialog size will | |
449 | automatically be bigger on Linux/GTK than on Windows.</p> | |
450 | <p>There are currently five different kinds of sizers available in | |
451 | wxPython. Each represents either a certain way to lay out dialog items | |
452 | in a dialog or it fulfils a special task such as wrapping a static box | |
453 | around a dialog item (or another sizer). These sizers will be | |
454 | discussed one by one in the text below.</p> | |
455 | </div> | |
456 | <div class="section" id="common-features"> | |
457 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id17" name="common-features">Common features</a></h2> | |
458 | <p>All sizers are containers, that is, they are used to lay out one | |
459 | dialog item (or several dialog items), which they contain. Such items | |
460 | are sometimes referred to as the children of the sizer. Independent | |
461 | of how the individual sizers lay out their children, all children have | |
462 | certain features in common:</p> | |
463 | <div class="section" id="a-minimal-size"> | |
464 | <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id18" name="a-minimal-size">A minimal size</a></h3> | |
465 | <p>This minimal size is usually identical to the initial size of the | |
466 | controls and may either be set explicitly in the size field of the | |
467 | control constructor or may be calculated by wxPython, typically by | |
468 | setting the height and/or the width of the item to -1. Note that only | |
469 | some controls can calculate their size (such as a checkbox) whereas | |
470 | others (such as a listbox) don't have any natural width or height and | |
471 | thus require an explicit size. Some controls can calculate their | |
472 | height, but not their width (e.g. a single line text control):</p> | |
473 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
474 | </div> | |
475 | <div class="section" id="a-border"> | |
476 | <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id19" name="a-border">A border</a></h3> | |
477 | <p>The border is just empty space and is used to separate dialog items in | |
478 | a dialog. This border can either be all around, or at any combination | |
479 | of sides such as only above and below the control. The thickness of | |
480 | this border must be set explicitly, typically 5 points. The following | |
481 | samples show dialogs with only one dialog item (a button) and a border | |
482 | of 0, 5, and 10 pixels around the button:</p> | |
483 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
484 | </div> | |
485 | <div class="section" id="an-alignment"> | |
486 | <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id20" name="an-alignment">An alignment</a></h3> | |
487 | <p>Often, a dialog item is given more space than its minimal size plus | |
488 | its border. Depending on what flags are used for the respective dialog | |
489 | item, the dialog item can be made to fill out the available space | |
490 | entirely, i.e. it will grow to a size larger than the minimal size, or | |
491 | it will be moved to either the centre of the available space or to | |
492 | either side of the space. The following sample shows a listbox and | |
493 | three buttons in a horizontal box sizer; one button is centred, one is | |
494 | aligned at the top, one is aligned at the bottom:</p> | |
495 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
496 | </div> | |
497 | <div class="section" id="a-stretch-factor"> | |
498 | <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id21" name="a-stretch-factor">A stretch factor</a></h3> | |
499 | <p>If a sizer contains more than one child and it is offered more space | |
500 | than its children and their borders need, the question arises how to | |
501 | distribute the surplus space among the children. For this purpose, a | |
502 | stretch factor may be assigned to each child, where the default value | |
503 | of 0 indicates that the child will not get more space than its | |
504 | requested minimum size. A value of more than zero is interpreted in | |
505 | relation to the sum of all stretch factors in the children of the | |
506 | respective sizer, i.e. if two children get a stretch factor of 1, they | |
507 | will get half the extra space each independent of whether one control | |
508 | has a minimal sizer inferior to the other or not. The following | |
509 | sample shows a dialog with three buttons, the first one has a stretch | |
510 | factor of 1 and thus gets stretched, whereas the other two buttons | |
511 | have a stretch factor of zero and keep their initial width:</p> | |
512 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
513 | <p>Within wxDesigner, this stretch factor gets set from the Option menu.</p> | |
514 | </div> | |
515 | </div> | |
516 | <div class="section" id="boxsizer"> | |
517 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id22" name="boxsizer">BoxSizer</a></h2> | |
518 | <p>BoxSizer can lay out its children either vertically or horizontally, | |
519 | depending on what flag is being used in its constructor. When using a | |
520 | vertical sizer, each child can be centered, aligned to the right or | |
521 | aligned to the left. Correspondingly, when using a horizontal sizer, | |
522 | each child can be centered, aligned at the bottom or aligned at the | |
523 | top. The stretch factor described in the last paragraph is used for | |
524 | the main orientation, i.e. when using a horizontal box sizer, the | |
525 | stretch factor determines how much the child can be stretched | |
526 | horizontally. The following sample shows the same dialog as in the | |
527 | last sample, only the box sizer is a vertical box sizer now:</p> | |
528 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
529 | </div> | |
530 | <div class="section" id="staticboxsizer"> | |
531 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id23" name="staticboxsizer">StaticBoxSizer</a></h2> | |
532 | <p>StaticBoxSixer is the same as a BoxSizer, but surrounded by a static | |
533 | box. Here is a sample:</p> | |
534 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
535 | </div> | |
536 | <div class="section" id="gridsizer"> | |
537 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id24" name="gridsizer">GridSizer</a></h2> | |
538 | <p>GridSizer is a two-dimensional sizer. All children are given the same | |
539 | size, which is the minimal size required by the biggest child, in this | |
540 | case the text control in the left bottom border. Either the number of | |
541 | columns or the number or rows is fixed and the grid sizer will grow in | |
542 | the respectively other orientation if new children are added:</p> | |
543 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
544 | </div> | |
545 | <div class="section" id="flexgridsizer"> | |
546 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id25" name="flexgridsizer">FlexGridSizer</a></h2> | |
547 | <p>Another two-dimensional sizer derived from GridSizer. The width of | |
548 | each column and the height of each row are calculated individually | |
549 | according the minimal requirements from the respectively biggest | |
550 | child. Additionally, columns and rows can be declared to be | |
551 | stretchable if the sizer is assigned a size different from that which | |
552 | it requested. The following sample shows the same dialog as the one | |
553 | above, but using a flex grid sizer:</p> | |
554 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
555 | </div> | |
556 | <div class="section" id="notebooksizer"> | |
557 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id26" name="notebooksizer">NotebookSizer</a></h2> | |
558 | <p>NotebookSizer can be used with notebooks. It calculates the size of | |
559 | each notebook page and sets the size of the notebook to the size of | |
560 | the biggest page plus some extra space required for the notebook tabs | |
561 | and decorations.</p> | |
562 | <p>[Need graphics]</p> | |
563 | </div> | |
564 | <div class="section" id="programming-with-boxsizer"> | |
565 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id27" name="programming-with-boxsizer">Programming with BoxSizer</a></h2> | |
566 | <p>The basic idea behind a BoxSizer is that windows will most often be | |
567 | laid out in rather simple basic geometry, typically in a row or a | |
568 | column or several hierarchies of either.</p> | |
569 | <p>As an example, we will construct a dialog that will contain a text | |
570 | field at the top and two buttons at the bottom. This can be seen as a | |
571 | top-hierarchy column with the text at the top and buttons at the | |
572 | bottom and a low-hierarchy row with an OK button to the left and a | |
573 | Cancel button to the right. In many cases (particularly dialogs under | |
574 | Unix and normal frames) the main window will be resizable by the user | |
575 | and this change of size will have to get propagated to its children. | |
576 | In our case, we want the text area to grow with the dialog, whereas | |
577 | the button shall have a fixed size. In addition, there will be a thin | |
578 | border around all controls to make the dialog look nice and - to make | |
579 | matter worse - the buttons shall be centred as the width of the dialog | |
580 | changes.</p> | |
581 | <p>It is the unique feature of a box sizer, that it can grow in both | |
582 | directions (height and width) but can distribute its growth in the | |
583 | main direction (horizontal for a row) unevenly among its children. In | |
584 | our example case, the vertical sizer is supposed to propagate all its | |
585 | height changes to only the text area, not to the button area. This is | |
586 | determined by the proportion parameter when adding a window (or | |
587 | another sizer) to a sizer. It is interpreted as a weight factor, | |
588 | i.e. it can be zero, indicating that the window may not be resized at | |
589 | all, or above zero. If several windows have a value above zero, the | |
590 | value is interpreted relative to the sum of all weight factors of the | |
591 | sizer, so when adding two windows with a value of 1, they will both | |
592 | get resized equally much and each half as much as the sizer owning | |
593 | them.</p> | |
594 | <p>Then what do we do when a column sizer changes its width? This | |
595 | behaviour is controlled by flags (the second parameter of the Add() | |
596 | function): zero or no flag indicates that the window will preserve it | |
597 | is original size, wx.GROW flag (same as wx.EXPAND) forces the window | |
598 | to grow with the sizer, and wx.SHAPED flag tells the window to change | |
599 | it is size proportionally, preserving original aspect ratio. When | |
600 | wx.GROW flag is not used, the item can be aligned within available | |
601 | space. wx.ALIGN_LEFT, wx.ALIGN_TOP, wx.ALIGN_RIGHT, wx.ALIGN_BOTTOM, | |
602 | wx.ALIGN_CENTER_HORIZONTAL and wx.ALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL do what they | |
603 | say. wx.ALIGN_CENTRE (same as wx.ALIGN_CENTER) is defined as | |
604 | (<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">wx.ALIGN_CENTER_HORIZONTAL</span> <span class="pre">|</span> <span class="pre">wx.ALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL</span></tt>). Default | |
605 | alignment is <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">wx.ALIGN_LEFT</span> <span class="pre">|</span> <span class="pre">wx.ALIGN_TOP</span></tt>.</p> | |
606 | <p>As mentioned above, any window belonging to a sizer may have border, | |
607 | and it can be specified which of the four sides may have this border, | |
608 | using the wx.TOP, wx.LEFT, wx.RIGHT and wx.BOTTOM constants or wx.ALL | |
609 | for all directions (and you may also use wx.NORTH, wx.WEST etc | |
610 | instead). These flags can be used in combination with the alignment | |
611 | flags above as the second parameter of the Add() method using the | |
612 | binary or operator (<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">|</span></tt>). The sizer of the border also must be made | |
613 | known, and it is the third parameter in the Add() method. This means, | |
614 | that the entire behaviour of a sizer and its children can be | |
615 | controlled by the three parameters of the Add() method.</p> | |
616 | <p>[Show code and graphic here.]</p> | |
617 | </div> | |
618 | <div class="section" id="programming-with-gridsizer"> | |
619 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id28" name="programming-with-gridsizer">Programming with GridSizer</a></h2> | |
620 | <p>GridSizer is a sizer which lays out its children in a two-dimensional | |
621 | table with all table fields having the same size, i.e. the width of | |
622 | each field is the width of the widest child, the height of each field | |
623 | is the height of the tallest child.</p> | |
624 | <p>[Show code and graphic here.]</p> | |
625 | </div> | |
626 | <div class="section" id="programming-with-flexgridsizer"> | |
627 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id29" name="programming-with-flexgridsizer">Programming with FlexGridSizer</a></h2> | |
628 | <p>FlexGridSizer is a sizer which lays out its children in a | |
629 | two-dimensional table with all table fields in one row having the same | |
630 | height and all fields in one column having the same width, but all | |
631 | rows or all columns are not necessarily the same height or width as in | |
632 | the GridSizer.</p> | |
633 | <p>[Show code and graphic here.]</p> | |
634 | </div> | |
635 | <div class="section" id="programming-with-notebooksizer"> | |
636 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id30" name="programming-with-notebooksizer">Programming with NotebookSizer</a></h2> | |
637 | <p>NotebookSizer is a specialized sizer to make sizers work in connection | |
638 | with using notebooks. This sizer is different from any other sizer as | |
639 | you must not add any children to it - instead, it queries the notebook | |
640 | class itself. The only thing this sizer does is to determine the size | |
641 | of the biggest page of the notebook and report an adjusted minimal | |
642 | size to a more toplevel sizer.</p> | |
643 | <p>In order to query the size of notebook page, this page needs to have | |
644 | its own sizer, otherwise the NotebookSizer will ignore it. Notebook | |
645 | pages get their sizer by assigning one to them using SetSizer() and | |
646 | setting the auto-layout option to True using SetAutoLayout(). Here is | |
647 | one example showing how to add a notebook page that the notebook sizer | |
648 | is aware of:</p> | |
649 | <p>[Show code and graphic here.]</p> | |
650 | </div> | |
651 | <div class="section" id="programming-with-staticboxsizer"> | |
652 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id31" name="programming-with-staticboxsizer">Programming with StaticBoxSizer</a></h2> | |
653 | <p>StaticBoxSizer is a sizer derived from BoxSizer but adds a static box | |
654 | around the sizer. Note that this static box has to be created | |
655 | separately.</p> | |
656 | <p>[Show code and graphic here.]</p> | |
657 | </div> | |
658 | <div class="section" id="dialog-createbuttonsizer"> | |
659 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id32" name="dialog-createbuttonsizer">Dialog.CreateButtonSizer</a></h2> | |
660 | <p>As a convenience, the Dialog class has a CreateButtonSizer(flags) | |
661 | method that can be used to create a standard button sizer in which | |
662 | standard buttons are displayed. The following flags can be passed to | |
663 | this method:</p> | |
664 | <table border class="table"> | |
665 | <colgroup> | |
666 | <col width="19%" /> | |
667 | <col width="81%" /> | |
668 | </colgroup> | |
669 | <tbody valign="top"> | |
670 | <tr><td>wx.YES_NO</td> | |
671 | <td>add Yes/No subpanel</td> | |
672 | </tr> | |
673 | <tr><td>wx.YES</td> | |
674 | <td>return wx.ID_YES</td> | |
675 | </tr> | |
676 | <tr><td>wx.NO</td> | |
677 | <td>return wx.ID_NO</td> | |
678 | </tr> | |
679 | <tr><td>wx.NO_DEFAULT</td> | |
680 | <td>make the wx.NO button the default, otherwise wx.YES or | |
681 | wx.OK button will be default</td> | |
682 | </tr> | |
683 | <tr><td>wx.OK</td> | |
684 | <td>return wx.ID_OK</td> | |
685 | </tr> | |
686 | <tr><td>wx.CANCEL</td> | |
687 | <td>return wx.ID_CANCEL</td> | |
688 | </tr> | |
689 | <tr><td>wx.HELP</td> | |
690 | <td>return wx.ID_HELP</td> | |
691 | </tr> | |
692 | <tr><td>wx.FORWARD</td> | |
693 | <td>return wx.ID_FORWARD</td> | |
694 | </tr> | |
695 | <tr><td>wx.BACKWARD</td> | |
696 | <td>return wx.ID_BACKWARD</td> | |
697 | </tr> | |
698 | <tr><td>wx.SETUP</td> | |
699 | <td>return wx.ID_SETUP</td> | |
700 | </tr> | |
701 | <tr><td>wx.MORE</td> | |
702 | <td>return wx.ID_MORE</td> | |
703 | </tr> | |
704 | </tbody> | |
705 | </table> | |
706 | </div> | |
707 | </div> | |
708 | <div class="section" id="date-and-time-classes-overview"> | |
709 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id33" name="date-and-time-classes-overview">Date and time classes overview</a></h1> | |
710 | <p>wxPython provides a set of powerful classes to work with dates and | |
711 | times. Some of the supported features of the DateTime class are:</p> | |
712 | <table border class="table"> | |
713 | <colgroup> | |
714 | <col width="18%" /> | |
715 | <col width="82%" /> | |
716 | </colgroup> | |
717 | <tbody valign="top"> | |
718 | <tr><td>Wide range</td> | |
719 | <td>The range of supported dates goes from about 4714 B.C. to | |
720 | some 480 million years in the future.</td> | |
721 | </tr> | |
722 | <tr><td>Precision</td> | |
723 | <td>Not using floating point calculations anywhere ensures that | |
724 | the date calculations don't suffer from rounding | |
725 | errors.</td> | |
726 | </tr> | |
727 | <tr><td>Many features</td> | |
728 | <td>Not only all usual calculations with dates are | |
729 | supported, but also more exotic week and year day | |
730 | calculations, work day testing, standard astronomical | |
731 | functions, conversion to and from strings in either | |
732 | strict or free format.</td> | |
733 | </tr> | |
734 | <tr><td>Efficiency</td> | |
735 | <td>Objects of DateTime are small (8 bytes) and working | |
736 | with them is fast</td> | |
737 | </tr> | |
738 | </tbody> | |
739 | </table> | |
740 | <div class="section" id="all-date-time-classes-at-a-glance"> | |
741 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id34" name="all-date-time-classes-at-a-glance">All date/time classes at a glance</a></h2> | |
742 | <p>There are 3 main classes: except DateTime itself which represents an | |
743 | absolute moment in time, there are also two classes - TimeSpan and | |
744 | DateSpan which represent the intervals of time.</p> | |
745 | <p>There are also helper classes which are used together with DateTime: | |
746 | DateTimeHolidayAuthority which is used to determine whether a given | |
747 | date is a holiday or not and DateTimeWorkDays which is a derivation of | |
748 | this class for which (only) Saturdays and Sundays are the holidays. | |
749 | See more about these classes in the discussion of the holidays.</p> | |
750 | </div> | |
751 | <div class="section" id="datetime-characteristics"> | |
752 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id35" name="datetime-characteristics">DateTime characteristics</a></h2> | |
753 | <p>DateTime stores the time as a signed number of milliseconds since the | |
754 | Epoch which is fixed, by convention, to Jan 1, 1970 - however this is | |
755 | not visible to the class users (in particular, dates prior to the | |
756 | Epoch are handled just as well (or as bad) as the dates after it). | |
757 | But it does mean that the best resolution which can be achieved with | |
758 | this class is 1 millisecond.</p> | |
759 | <p>The size of DateTime object is 8 bytes because it is represented as a | |
760 | 64 bit integer. The resulting range of supported dates is thus | |
761 | approximatively 580 million years, but due to the current limitations | |
762 | in the Gregorian calendar support, only dates from Nov 24, 4714BC are | |
763 | supported (this is subject to change if there is sufficient interest | |
764 | in doing it).</p> | |
765 | <p>Finally, the internal representation is time zone independent (always | |
766 | in GMT) and the time zones only come into play when a date is broken | |
767 | into year/month/day components. See more about timezones below.</p> | |
768 | <p>Currently, the only supported calendar is Gregorian one (which is used | |
769 | even for the dates prior to the historic introduction of this calendar | |
770 | which was first done on Oct 15, 1582 but is, generally speaking, | |
771 | country, and even region, dependent). Future versions will probably | |
772 | have Julian calendar support as well and support for other calendars | |
773 | (Maya, Hebrew, Chinese...) is not ruled out.</p> | |
774 | </div> | |
775 | <div class="section" id="difference-between-datespan-and-timespan"> | |
776 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id36" name="difference-between-datespan-and-timespan">Difference between DateSpan and TimeSpan</a></h2> | |
777 | <p>While there is only one logical way to represent an absolute moment in | |
778 | the time (and hence only one DateTime class), there are at least two | |
779 | methods to describe a time interval.</p> | |
780 | <p>First, there is the direct and self-explaining way implemented by | |
781 | TimeSpan: it is just a difference in milliseconds between two moments | |
782 | in time. Adding or subtracting such an interval to DateTime is always | |
783 | well-defined and is a fast operation.</p> | |
784 | <p>But in daily life other, calendar-dependent time interval | |
785 | specifications are used. For example, 'one month later' is commonly | |
786 | used. However, it is clear that this is not the same as TimeSpan of | |
787 | 60*60*24*31 seconds because 'one month later' Feb 15 is Mar 15 and not | |
788 | Mar 17 or Mar 16 (depending on whether the year is leap or not).</p> | |
789 | <p>This is why there is another class for representing such intervals | |
790 | called DateSpan. It handles these sort of operations in the most | |
791 | natural way possible, but note that manipulating with intervals of | |
792 | this kind is not always well-defined. Consider, for example, Jan 31 + | |
793 | '1 month': this will give Feb 28 (or 29), i.e. the last day of | |
794 | February and not the non-existent Feb 31. Of course, this is what is | |
795 | usually wanted, but you still might be surprised to notice that now | |
796 | subtracting back the same interval from Feb 28 will result in Jan 28 | |
797 | and not Jan 31 we started with!</p> | |
798 | <p>So, unless you plan to implement some kind of natural language parsing | |
799 | in the program, you should probably use TimeSpan instead of DateSpan | |
800 | (which is also more efficient). However, DateSpan may be very useful | |
801 | in situations when you do need to understand what 'in a month' means | |
802 | (of course, it is just DateTime.Now() + DateSpan.Month()).</p> | |
803 | </div> | |
804 | <div class="section" id="date-arithmetics"> | |
805 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id37" name="date-arithmetics">Date arithmetics</a></h2> | |
806 | <p>Many different operations may be performed with the dates, however not | |
807 | all of them make sense. For example, multiplying a date by a number | |
808 | is an invalid operation, even though multiplying either of the time | |
809 | span classes by a number is perfectly valid.</p> | |
810 | <p>Here is what can be done:</p> | |
811 | <table border class="table"> | |
812 | <colgroup> | |
813 | <col width="19%" /> | |
814 | <col width="81%" /> | |
815 | </colgroup> | |
816 | <tbody valign="top"> | |
817 | <tr><td>Addition</td> | |
818 | <td>a TimeSpan or DateSpan can be added to DateTime resulting in | |
819 | a new DateTime object and also 2 objects of the same | |
820 | span class can be added together giving another object | |
821 | of the same class.</td> | |
822 | </tr> | |
823 | <tr><td>Subtraction</td> | |
824 | <td>the same types of operations as above are allowed and, | |
825 | additionally, a difference between two DateTime | |
826 | objects can be taken and this will yield TimeSpan.</td> | |
827 | </tr> | |
828 | <tr><td>Multiplication</td> | |
829 | <td>a TimeSpan or DateSpan object can be multiplied by an | |
830 | integer number resulting in an object of the same | |
831 | type.</td> | |
832 | </tr> | |
833 | <tr><td>Unary minus</td> | |
834 | <td>a TimeSpan or DateSpan object may finally be negated | |
835 | giving an interval of the same magnitude but of | |
836 | opposite time direction.</td> | |
837 | </tr> | |
838 | </tbody> | |
839 | </table> | |
840 | </div> | |
841 | <div class="section" id="time-zone-considerations"> | |
842 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id38" name="time-zone-considerations">Time zone considerations</a></h2> | |
843 | <p>Although the time is always stored internally in GMT, you will usually | |
844 | work in the local time zone. Because of this, all DateTime | |
845 | constructors and setters which take the broken down date assume that | |
846 | these values are for the local time zone. Thus, DateTime(1, | |
847 | DateTime.Jan, 1970) will not correspond to the DateTime Epoch unless | |
848 | you happen to live in the UK.</p> | |
849 | <p>All methods returning the date components (year, month, day, hour, | |
850 | minute, second...) will also return the correct values for the local | |
851 | time zone by default. So, generally, doing the natural things will | |
852 | lead to natural and correct results.</p> | |
853 | <p>If you only want to do this, you may safely skip the rest of this | |
854 | section. However, if you want to work with different time zones, you | |
855 | should read it to the end.</p> | |
856 | <p>In this (rare) case, you are still limited to the local time zone when | |
857 | constructing DateTime objects, i.e. there is no way to construct a | |
858 | DateTime corresponding to the given date in, say, Pacific Standard | |
859 | Time. To do it, you will need to call ToTimezone or MakeTimezone | |
860 | methods to adjust the date for the target time zone. There are also | |
861 | special versions of these functions ToGMT and MakeGMT for the most | |
862 | common case - when the date should be constructed in GMT.</p> | |
863 | <p>You also can just retrieve the value for some time zone without | |
864 | converting the object to it first. For this you may pass TimeZone | |
865 | argument to any of the methods which are affected by the time zone | |
866 | (all methods getting date components and the date formatting ones, for | |
867 | example). In particular, the Format() family of methods accepts a | |
868 | TimeZone parameter and this allows to simply print time in any time | |
869 | zone.</p> | |
870 | <p>To see how to do it, the last issue to address is how to construct a | |
871 | TimeZone object which must be passed to all these methods. First of | |
872 | all, you may construct it manually by specifying the time zone offset | |
873 | in seconds from GMT, but usually you will just use one of the symbolic | |
874 | time zone names and let the conversion constructor do the | |
875 | job. I.e. you would just write</p> | |
876 | <p>wxDateTime dt(...whatever...); | |
877 | printf("The time is %s in local time zone", dt.FormatTime().c_str()); | |
878 | printf("The time is %s in GMT", dt.FormatTime(wxDateTime::GMT).c_str());</p> | |
879 | </div> | |
880 | <div class="section" id="daylight-saving-time-dst"> | |
881 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id39" name="daylight-saving-time-dst">Daylight saving time (DST)</a></h2> | |
882 | <p>DST (a.k.a. 'summer time') handling is always a delicate task which is | |
883 | better left to the operating system which is supposed to be configured | |
884 | by the administrator to behave correctly. Unfortunately, when doing | |
885 | calculations with date outside of the range supported by the standard | |
886 | library, we are forced to deal with these issues ourselves.</p> | |
887 | <p>Several functions are provided to calculate the beginning and end of | |
888 | DST in the given year and to determine whether it is in effect at the | |
889 | given moment or not, but they should not be considered as absolutely | |
890 | correct because, first of all, they only work more or less correctly | |
891 | for only a handful of countries (any information about other ones | |
892 | appreciated!) and even for them the rules may perfectly well change in | |
893 | the future.</p> | |
894 | <p>The time zone handling methods use these functions too, so they are | |
895 | subject to the same limitations.</p> | |
896 | </div> | |
897 | <div class="section" id="datetime-and-holidays"> | |
898 | <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id40" name="datetime-and-holidays">DateTime and Holidays</a></h2> | |
899 | <p>[TODO]</p> | |
900 | </div> | |
901 | </div> | |
902 | <div class="section" id="classes-by-category"> | |
903 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id41" name="classes-by-category">Classes by category</a></h1> | |
904 | <p>Not done yet.</p> | |
905 | </div> | |
906 | <div class="section" id="id-constants"> | |
907 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id42" name="id-constants">ID constants</a></h1> | |
908 | <p>wxPython provides the following predefined ID constants:</p> | |
909 | <p>ID_ABORT | |
910 | ID_ABOUT | |
911 | ID_ANY | |
912 | ID_APPLY | |
913 | ID_BACKWARD | |
914 | ID_CANCEL | |
915 | ID_CLEAR | |
916 | ID_CLOSE | |
917 | ID_CLOSE_ALL | |
918 | ID_CONTEXT_HELP | |
919 | ID_COPY | |
920 | ID_CUT | |
921 | ID_DEFAULT | |
922 | ID_DUPLICATE | |
923 | ID_EXIT | |
924 | ID_FILE1 | |
925 | ID_FILE2 | |
926 | ID_FILE3 | |
927 | ID_FILE4 | |
928 | ID_FILE5 | |
929 | ID_FILE6 | |
930 | ID_FILE7 | |
931 | ID_FILE8 | |
932 | ID_FILE9 | |
933 | ID_FILTERLISTCTRL | |
934 | ID_FIND | |
935 | ID_FORWARD | |
936 | ID_HELP | |
937 | ID_HELP_COMMANDS | |
938 | ID_HELP_CONTENTS | |
939 | ID_HELP_CONTEXT | |
940 | ID_HELP_PROCEDURES | |
941 | ID_IGNORE | |
942 | ID_MORE | |
943 | ID_NEW | |
944 | ID_NO | |
945 | ID_NOTOALL | |
946 | ID_OK | |
947 | ID_OPEN | |
948 | ID_PASTE | |
949 | ID_PREVIEW | |
950 | ID_PRINT | |
951 | ID_PRINT_SETUP | |
952 | ID_REDO | |
953 | ID_RESET | |
954 | ID_RETRY | |
955 | ID_REVERT | |
956 | ID_SAVE | |
957 | ID_SAVEAS | |
958 | ID_SELECTALL | |
959 | ID_SEPARATOR | |
960 | ID_SETUP | |
961 | ID_STATIC | |
962 | ID_TREECTRL | |
963 | ID_UNDO | |
964 | ID_YES | |
965 | ID_YESTOALL</p> | |
966 | </div> | |
967 | <div class="section" id="source-document"> | |
968 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id43" name="source-document">Source document</a></h1> | |
969 | <p>The source document is named wxPythonManual.txt and can be found by | |
970 | clicking the link at the bottom of this page (assuming you are viewing | |
971 | the html file). It is written using a fantastic formatting convention | |
972 | called reStructuredText. The wxPythonManual.html file is created | |
973 | using the Docutils utilities, which can turn reStructuredText | |
974 | documents into html, xml, pdf, and even OpenOffice files.</p> | |
975 | </div> | |
976 | <div class="section" id="submitting-changes-to-the-source-document"> | |
977 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id44" name="submitting-changes-to-the-source-document">Submitting changes to the source document</a></h1> | |
978 | <p>Some items in the source text file look like this:</p> | |
979 | <pre class="literal-block"> | |
980 | .. This is text from the wxWindows documentation that needs to be | |
981 | translated into something appropriate for the wxPython version. | |
982 | The two dots followed by uniformly indented text turns this | |
983 | paragraph into a reStructuredText comment, so it doesn't appear | |
984 | in any output file, such as the html file. | |
985 | </pre> | |
986 | <p>They have been commented out and are awaiting editorial review and a | |
987 | rewrite so that they make sense in the context of wxPython. Feel free | |
988 | to send me suggestions for rewording these, or any other parts of this | |
989 | document that you think need improving. I will be eternally grateful | |
990 | to you and will show my gratitude by adding your name to the list of | |
991 | contributors. (Contributors who also send me gifts of coffee, | |
992 | chocolate, or currency will have their names listed in bold.)</p> | |
993 | </div> | |
994 | <div class="section" id="contributors"> | |
995 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id45" name="contributors">Contributors</a></h1> | |
996 | <p>Individuals who contributed to this documentation (in order by last | |
997 | name):</p> | |
998 | <ul class="simple"> | |
999 | <li>Robin Dunn</li> | |
1000 | <li>Patrick K. O'Brien</li> | |
1001 | <li>Robert Roebling</li> | |
1002 | <li>Julian Smart</li> | |
1003 | <li>Vadim Zeitlin</li> | |
1004 | </ul> | |
1005 | </div> | |
1006 | <div class="section" id="license"> | |
1007 | <h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id46" name="license">License</a></h1> | |
1008 | <p>This document began as a translation of the wxWindows documentation. | |
1009 | As such, it adheres to the same license, which is provided here:</p> | |
1010 | <pre class="literal-block"> | |
1011 | wxWindows Free Documentation Licence, Version 3 | |
1012 | =============================================== | |
1013 | ||
1014 | Copyright (c) 1998 Julian Smart, Robert Roebling et al | |
1015 | ||
1016 | Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies | |
1017 | of this licence document, but changing it is not allowed. | |
1018 | ||
1019 | WXWINDOWS FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENCE | |
1020 | TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION | |
1021 | ||
1022 | 1. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this | |
1023 | manual or piece of documentation provided any copyright notice and this | |
1024 | permission notice are preserved on all copies. | |
1025 | ||
1026 | 2. Permission is granted to process this file or document through a | |
1027 | document processing system and, at your option and the option of any third | |
1028 | party, print the results, provided a printed document carries a copying | |
1029 | permission notice identical to this one. | |
1030 | ||
1031 | 3. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this | |
1032 | manual or piece of documentation under the conditions for verbatim | |
1033 | copying, provided also that any sections describing licensing conditions | |
1034 | for this manual, such as, in particular, the GNU General Public Licence, | |
1035 | the GNU Library General Public Licence, and any wxWindows Licence are | |
1036 | included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire | |
1037 | resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission | |
1038 | notice identical to this one. | |
1039 | ||
1040 | 4. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this | |
1041 | manual or piece of documentation into another language, under the above | |
1042 | conditions for modified versions, except that sections related to | |
1043 | licensing, including this paragraph, may also be included in translations | |
1044 | approved by the copyright holders of the respective licence documents in | |
1045 | addition to the original English. | |
1046 | ||
1047 | WARRANTY DISCLAIMER | |
1048 | ||
1049 | 5. BECAUSE THIS MANUAL OR PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, | |
1050 | THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR IT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. | |
1051 | EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER | |
1052 | PARTIES PROVIDE THIS MANUAL OR PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION "AS IS" WITHOUT | |
1053 | WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT | |
1054 | LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A | |
1055 | PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF | |
1056 | THE MANUAL OR PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE MANUAL OR | |
1057 | PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL | |
1058 | NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. | |
1059 | ||
1060 | 6. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL | |
1061 | ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR | |
1062 | REDISTRIBUTE THE MANUAL OR PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE | |
1063 | LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR | |
1064 | CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE | |
1065 | MANUAL OR PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF | |
1066 | DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD | |
1067 | PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF A PROGRAM BASED ON THE MANUAL OR PIECE OF | |
1068 | DOCUMENTATION TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR | |
1069 | OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. | |
1070 | ||
1071 | ||
1072 | </pre> | |
1073 | </div> | |
1074 | </div> | |
1075 | <hr class="footer" /> | |
1076 | <div class="footer"> | |
1077 | Generated on: 2004-03-26 21:09 UTC. | |
1078 | </div> | |
1079 | </body> | |
1080 | </html> |