utils/wxPython/README.txt

   1 wxPython README
   2 ---------------
   3
   4 Welcome to the wonderful world of wxPython!
   5
   6 Once you have installed the wxPython extension module, you can try it
   7 out by going to the [install dir]\wxPython\demo directory and typing:
   8
   9     python demo.py
  10
  11 There are also some other sample files there for you to play with and
  12 learn from.
  13
  14 If you selected to install the documentation then point your browser
  15 to [install dir]\wxPython\docs\index.htm and you will then be looking
  16 at the docs for wxWindows.  For the most part you can use the C++ docs
  17 as most classes and methods are used identically.  Where there are
  18 differences they are documented with a "wxPython Note."
  19
  20 On Win32 systems the binary self-installer creates a program group on
  21 the Start Menu that contains a link to running the demo and a link to
  22 the help file.  To help you save disk space I'm now using Microsoft's
  23 HTML Help format.  If your system doesn't know what to do with the help
  24 file, you can install the HTML Help Viewer as part of IE 4+, NT
  25 Service Pack 4+, or the HTML Workshop at
  26
  27 http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/htmlhelp/download.asp.
  28
  29
  30
  31 Getting Help
  32 ------------
  33
  34 Since wxPython is a blending of multiple technologies, help comes from
  35 multiple sources.  See the http://alldunn.com/wxPython for details on
  36 various sources of help, but probably the best source is the
  37 wxPython-users mail list.  You can view the archive or subscribe by
  38 going to
  39
  40        http://starship.python.net/mailman/listinfo/wxpython-users
  41
  42 Or you can send mail directly to the list using this address:
  43
  44        wxpython-users@starship.python.net
  45
  46 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  47
  48 What's new in 2.1.11
  49 --------------------
  50 wxImage.SetData now makes a copy of the image data before giving it to
  51 wxImage.  I mistakenly thought that wxImage would copy the data
  52 itself.
  53
  54 Fixed wxMSW's notebook so the pages get their size set as they are
  55 being added.  This should remove the need for our
  56 wxNotebook.ResizeChildren hack.
  57
  58 wxPanels now support AutoLayout, and wxNotebooks and wxSplitterWindows
  59 no longer tell their children to Layout() themselves.  This will
  60 probably only effect you if you have a wxWindow with AutoLayout inside
  61 a notebook or splitter.  If so, either change it to a wxPanel or add
  62 an EVT_SIZE handler that calls Layout().
  63
  64 Fixed deadlock problem that happened when using threads.
  65
  66 Added new HTML printing classes.
  67
  68 Added wxWindow.GetHandle
  69
  70 Apparently wxMouseEvent.Position has been depreciated in wxWindows as
  71 it is no longer available by default.  You can use GetPositionTuple
  72 (returning a tuple with x,y) instead, or GetPosition (returning a
  73 wxPoint.)
  74
  75 Added wxPostEvent function that allows events to be posted and then
  76 processed later.  This is a thread-safe way to interact with the GUI
  77 thread from other threads.
  78
  79 Added Clipboard and Drag-and-Drop classes.
  80
  81 Added wxFontEnumerator.
  82
  83 Many updates to wxMenu, wxMenuBar.
  84
  85 wxPyEvent and wxPyCommandEvent derived classes now give you the actual
  86 Python object in the event handler.
  87
  88
  89
  90
  91
  92 What's new in 2.1.5
  93 -------------------
  94 This is a quick bug-fix release to take care of a few nasties that
  95 crept in at the last minute before 2.1.4 was called done.  No new
  96 major features.
  97
  98
  99
 100 What's new in 2.1.4
 101 --------------------
 102
 103 This release is NOT syncronized with a snapshot release of wxGTK or
 104 wxMSW.  For MSW this isn't much of a problem since you can get the
 105 binaries from the web site.  For other platforms you'll have to build
 106 wxGTK from CVS.  (See http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/cvs.htm)
 107 To get the same set of sources from CVS that I used, checkout using
 108 the wxPy-2-1-4 tag.
 109
 110 Now back to what's new...
 111
 112 Much more support for event-less callbacks and add-on modules.
 113
 114 Created add-on module with wxOGL classes.
 115
 116 Added wxWindow.GetChildren().  Be careful of this.  It returns a *copy*
 117 of the list of the window's children.  While you are using the list if
 118 anything changes in the real list (a child is deleted, etc.) then the
 119 list you are holding will suddenly have window references to garbage
 120 memory and your app will likely crash.  But if you are careful it works
 121 great!
 122
 123 Added a bunch of new and missing methods to wxTreeCrtl.  The
 124 SortChildren method is now supported, but currently only for the
 125 default sort order.
 126
 127 Added typemaps for wxSize, wxPoint, wxRealPoint, and wxRect that allow
 128 either the actual objects or Python sequence values to be used.  For
 129 example, the following are equivallent:
 130
 131     win = wxWindow(parent, size = wxSize(100, 100))
 132     win = wxWindow(parent, size = (100, 100))
 133
 134 Super-charged the wxHtml module.  You can now create your own tag
 135 handlers and also have access to the parser and cell classes.  There
 136 is a tag handler in the library at wxPython.lib.wxpTag that
 137 understands the WXP tag and is able to place wxPython windows on HTML
 138 pages.  See the demo for an example.
 139
 140 A bunch of the methods of wxMenuBar were previously ifdef'd out for
 141 wxGTK.  Added them back in since the methods exist now.
 142
 143 Wrapped the wxHtmlHelpController and related classes.
 144
 145 Wrapped the C++ versions of wxSizer and friends.  The Python-only
 146 versions are still in the library, but depreciated.  (You will get a
 147 warning message if you try to use them, but the warning can be
 148 disabled.) The usage of the C++ versions is slightly different, and
 149 the functionality of wxBorderSizer is now part of wxBoxSizer.  I have
 150 added a few methods to wxSizer to try and make the transition as
 151 smooth as possible, I combined all Add methods into a single method
 152 that handles all cases, added an AddMany method, etc.  One step I did
 153 not take was to make the default value of flag in the Add method be
 154 wxGROW.  This would have made it more backward compatible, but less
 155 portable to and from wxWin C++ code.  Please see the docs and demo for
 156 further details.
 157
 158 Added wxPyEvent and wxPyCommandEvent classes, derived from wxEvent and
 159 wxCommandEvent.  Each of them has SetPyData and GetPyData methods that
 160 accept or return a single Python object.  You can use these classes
 161 directly or derive from them to create your own types of event objects
 162 that can pass through the wxWindows event system without loosing their
 163 Python parts (as long as they are stored with SetPyData.)  Stay tuned
 164 for more info and examples in future releases.
 165
 166 Added wxPython.lib.grids as an example of how to derive a new sizer
 167 from the C++ sizers.  In this module you will find wxGridSizer and
 168 wxFlexGridSizer.  wxGridSizer arrainges its items in a grid in which
 169 all the widths and heights are the same.  wxFlexgridSizer allows
 170 different widths and heights, and you can also specify rows and/or
 171 columns that are growable.  See the demo for a couple examples for how
 172 to use them.
 173
 174 Added the wxValidator class, and created a class named wxPyValidator
 175 that should be used for the base class of any Python validators.  See
 176 the demo for an example.  Please note that you MUST implement a Clone
 177 method in your validator classes because of the way some things work
 178 in the underlying C++ library.  I did not add wxTextValidator because
 179 of some issues of how it transfers data to and from a wxString, which
 180 in wxPython is automatically translated to and from Python strings, so
 181 there would never be a concrete wxString that would hang around long
 182 enough for the validator to do its job.  On the other hand, it should
 183 be real easy to duplicate the functionality of wxTextValidator in a
 184 pure Python class derived from wxPyValidator.
 185
 186 I've finally added a feature that has been on my list for close to two
 187 years!  Ever wondered what that zero is for when you create your app
 188 object?  Well now you can leave it out or explicitly set it to a true
 189 value.  This value now controls what is to be done with sys.stdout and
 190 sys.stderr.  A false value leaves them alone, and a true value sets
 191 them to an instance of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow.  (On windows the
 192 default is true, on unix platforms the default is false.)  This class
 193 creates a frame containing a wxTextCtrl as soon as anything is written
 194 to sys.stdout or sys.stderr.  If you close the window it will come
 195 back again the next time something is written.  (You can call
 196 app.RestoreStdio to turn this off.)  If you would rather that the stdio be
 197 redirected to a file, you can provide a second parameter to your app
 198 object's constructor that is a filename.  If you want to use your own
 199 class instead of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow you can either implement
 200 RedirectStdio() in you app class or change the value of
 201 wxApp.outputWindowClass like this:
 202
 203     class MyApp(wxApp):
 204         outputWindowClass = MyClass
 205
 206         def OnInit(self):
 207             frame = MyFrame()
 208             self.SetTopWindow(frame)
 209             return true
 210
 211 Please see the implementation of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow and wxApp in
 212 wx.py for more details.  A few words of caution:  if you are running
 213 your app in a debugger, changing sys.stdout and sys.stderr is likely
 214 to really screw things up.
 215
 216 Added wxCaret.  Unfortunately it's author has still not documented it
 217 in the wxWindows docs...
 218
 219 Some new 3rd party contributions in wxPython.lib.  PyShell, in
 220 shell.py is an interesting implementaion of an interactive Python
 221 shell in wxWindows.  floatbar.py has a class derived from wxToolBar
 222 that can sense mouse drags and then reparent itself into another
 223 frame. Moving the new frame close to where it came from puts the tool
 224 bar back into the original parent.  (Unfortunately there is currently
 225 a bug in wxGTK's wxFrame.SetToolBar so the FloatBar has some
 226 problems...)
 227
 228
 229
 230
 231 What's new in 2.1b3
 232 --------------------
 233
 234 This release is syncronized with release 2.1 snapshot 9 of wxWindows.
 235
 236 Switched to using SWIG from CVS (see http://swig.cs.uchicago.edu/cvs.html)
 237 for some of the new features and such.  Also they have encorporated my
 238 patches so there is really no reason to stick with the current (very
 239 old) release...  This version of SWIG gives the following new
 240 features:
 241
 242     1. Keyword arguments.  You no longer have to specify all the
 243        parameters with defaults to a method just to specify a
 244        non-default value on the end.  You can now do this instead:
 245
 246           win = wxWindow(parent, -1, style = mystyle)
 247
 248     2. There is now an an equivalence between Python's None and C++'s
 249        NULL.  This means that any methods that might return NULL will
 250        now return None and you can use none where wxWindows might be
 251        expecting NULL.  This makes things much more snake-ish.
 252
 253
 254 There is a new build system based on a new Python program instead of
 255 raw makefiles.  Now wxPython builds are virtually the same on MSW or
 256 Unix systems.  See the end of this file for new build instructions and
 257 see distrib/build.py for more details.
 258
 259 wxDC.Bilt now includes the useMask parameter, and has been split into
 260 two different versions.  wxDC.BlitXY is like what was there before and
 261 takes raw coordinants and sizes, and the new wxDC.Blit is for the new
 262 interface using wxPoints and a wxSize.
 263
 264
 265
 266
 267
 268 What's new in 2.1b2
 269 --------------------
 270
 271 Added the missing wxWindow.GetUpdateRegion() method.
 272
 273 Made a new change in SWIG (update your patches everybody) that
 274 provides a fix for global shadow objects that get an exception in
 275 their __del__ when their extension module has already been deleted.
 276 It was only a 1 line change in .../SWIG/Modules/pycpp.cxx at about
 277 line 496 if you want to do it by hand.
 278
 279 It is now possible to run through MainLoop more than once in any one
 280 process.  The cleanup that used to happen as MainLoop completed (and
 281 prevented it from running again) has been delayed until the wxc module
 282 is being unloaded by Python.
 283
 284 I fixed a bunch of stuff in the C++ version of wxGrid so it wouldn't
 285 make wxPython look bad.
 286
 287 wxWindow.PopupMenu() now takes a wxPoint instead of  x,y.  Added
 288 wxWindow.PopupMenuXY to be consistent with some other methods.
 289
 290 Added wxGrid.SetEditInPlace and wxGrid.GetEditInPlace.
 291
 292 You can now provide your own app.MainLoop method.  See
 293 wxPython/demo/demoMainLoop.py for an example and some explaination.
 294
 295 Got the in-place-edit for the wxTreeCtrl fixed and added some demo
 296 code to show how to use it.
 297
 298 Put the wxIcon constructor back in for GTK as it now has one that
 299 matches MSW's.
 300
 301 Added wxGrid.GetCells
 302
 303 Added wxSystemSettings static methods as functions with names like
 304 wxSystemSettings_GetSystemColour.
 305
 306 Removed wxPyMenu since using menu callbacks have been depreciated in
 307 wxWindows.  Use wxMenu and events instead.
 308
 309 Added alternate wxBitmap constructor (for MSW only) as
 310       wxBitmapFromData(data, type, width, height, depth = 1)
 311
 312 Added a helper function named wxPyTypeCast that can convert shadow
 313 objects of one type into shadow objects of another type.  (Like doing
 314 a down-cast.)  See the implementation in wx.py for some docs.
 315
 316 Fixed wxImage GetData and SetData to properly use String objects for
 317 data transfer.
 318
 319 Added access methods to wxGridEvent.
 320
 321 New Makefile/Setup files supporting multiple dynamic extension modules
 322 for unix systems.
 323
 324 Fixes for the wxGLCanvas demo to work around a strange bug in gtk.
 325
 326 SWIG support routines now compiled separately instead of being bundled
 327 in wx.cpp.
 328
 329
 330
 331
 332
 333 What's new in 2.1b1
 334 --------------------
 335 Fixed wxComboBox.SetSelection so that it actually sets the selected
 336 item.  (Actually just removed it from wxPython and let it default to
 337 wxChoice.SetSelection which was already doing the right thing.)
 338
 339 Added the Printing Framework.
 340
 341 Switched back to using the wxWindows DLL for the pre-built Win32
 342 version.  The problem was needing to reinitialize static class info
 343 data after loading each extension module.
 344
 345 Lots of little tweaks and additions to reflect changes to various
 346 wxWindows classes.
 347
 348 Fixed a bug with attaching objects to tree items.  Actually was a
 349 symptom of a larger problem with not obtaining the interpreter lock
 350 when doing any Py_DECREFs.
 351
 352 wxSizer and friends.  Sizers are layout tools that manage a colection
 353 of windows and sizers.  Different types of sizers apply different
 354 types of layout algorithms.  You saw it here first!  These classes are
 355 not even in the wxWindows C++ library yet!
 356
 357
 358
 359 What's new in 2.0b9
 360 -------------------
 361 Bug fix for ListCtrl in test4.py (Was a missing file...  DSM!)
 362
 363 Bug fix for occassional GPF on Win32 systems upon termination of a
 364 wxPython application.
 365
 366 Added wxListBox.GetSelections returning selections as a Tuple.
 367
 368 Added a wxTreeItemData that is able to hold any Python object and be
 369 associated with items in a wxTreeCtrl.  Added test pytree.py to show
 370 this feature off.
 371
 372 Added wxSafeYield function.
 373
 374 OpenGL Canvas can be optionally compiled in to wxPython.
 375
 376 Awesome new Demo Framework for showing off wxPython and for learning
 377 how it all works.
 378
 379 The pre-built Win32 version is no longer distributing the wxWindows
 380 DLL.  It is statically linked with the wxWindows library instead.
 381
 382 Added a couple missing items from the docs.
 383
 384 Added wxImage, wxImageHandler, wxPNGHandler, wxJPEGHandler,
 385 wxGIFHandler and wxBMPHandler.
 386
 387 Added new methods to wxTextCtrl.
 388
 389 Fixed some problems with how SWIG was wrapping some wxTreeCtrl
 390 methods.
 391
 392
 393
 394 What's new in 2.0b8
 395 -------------------
 396 Support for using Python threads in wxPython apps.
 397
 398 Several missing methods from various classes.
 399
 400 Various bug fixes.
 401
 402
 403
 404 What's new in 2.0b7
 405 -------------------
 406 Added DLG_PNT and DLG_SZE convienience methods to wxWindow class.
 407
 408 Added missing constructor and other methods for wxMenuItem.
 409
 410
 411
 412 What's new in 2.0b6
 413 -------------------
 414 Just a quickie update to fix the self-installer to be compatible with
 415 Python 1.5.2b2's Registry settings.
 416
 417
 418 What's new in 2.0b5
 419 -------------------
 420 Well obviously the numbering scheme has changed.  I did this to
 421 reflect the fact that this truly is the second major revision of
 422 wxPython, (well the third actually if you count the one I did for
 423 wxWindows 1.68 and then threw away...) and also that it is associated
 424 with the 2.0 version of wxWindows.
 425
 426 I have finally started documenting wxPython.  There are several pages
 427 in the wxWindows documentation tree specifically about wxPython, and I
 428 have added notes within the class references about where and how wxPython
 429 diverges from wxWindows.
 430
 431 Added wxWindow_FromHWND(hWnd) for wxMSW to construct a wxWindow from a
 432 window handle.  If you can get the window handle into the python code,
 433 it should just work...  More news on this later.
 434
 435 Added wxImageList, wxToolTip.
 436
 437 Re-enabled wxConfig.DeleteAll() since it is reportedly fixed for the
 438 wxRegConfig class.
 439
 440 As usual, some bug fixes, tweaks, etc.
 441
 442
 443
 444 What's new in 0.5.3
 445 -------------------
 446 Added wxSashWindow, wxSashEvent, wxLayoutAlgorithm, etc.
 447
 448 Various cleanup, tweaks, minor additions, etc. to maintain
 449 compatibility with the current wxWindows.
 450
 451
 452
 453 What's new in 0.5.0
 454 -------------------
 455 Changed the import semantics from "from wxPython import *" to "from
 456 wxPython.wx import *"  This is for people who are worried about
 457 namespace pollution, they can use "from wxPython import wx" and then
 458 prefix all the wxPython identifiers with "wx."
 459
 460 Added wxTaskbarIcon for wxMSW.
 461
 462 Made the events work for wxGrid.
 463
 464 Added wxConfig.
 465
 466 Added wxMiniFrame for wxGTK.
 467
 468 Changed many of the args and return values that were pointers to gdi
 469 objects to references to reflect changes in the wxWindows API.
 470
 471 Other assorted fixes and additions.
 472
 473
 474
 475
 476 What's new in 0.4.2
 477 -------------------
 478
 479 wxPython on wxGTK works!!!  Both dynamic and static on Linux and
 480 static on Solaris have been tested.  Many thanks go to Harm
 481 <H.v.d.Heijden@phys.tue.nl> for his astute detective work on tracking
 482 down a nasty DECREF bug.  Okay so I have to confess that it was just a
 483 DSM (Dumb Stupid Mistake) on my part but it was nasty none the less
 484 because the behavior was so different on different platforms.
 485
 486 The dynamicly loaded module on Solaris is still segfaulting, so it
 487 must have been a different issue all along...
 488
 489
 490
 491 What's New in 0.4
 492 -----------------
 493
 494 1. Worked on wxGTK compatibility.  It is partially working.  On a
 495 Solaris/Sparc box wxPython is working but only when it is statically
 496 linked with the Python interpreter.  When built as a dyamically loaded
 497 extension module, things start acting weirdly and it soon seg-faults.
 498 And on Linux both the statically linked and the dynamically linked
 499 version segfault shortly after starting up.
 500
 501 2. Added Toolbar, StatusBar and SplitterWindow classes.
 502
 503 3. Varioius bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
 504
 505 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 506
 507
 508
 509 Build Instructions
 510 ------------------
 511 I used SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to create the source code for the
 512 extension module.  This enabled me to only have to deal with a small
 513 amount of code and only have to bother with the exceptional issues.
 514 SWIG takes care of the rest and generates all the repetative code for
 515 me.  You don't need SWIG to build the extension module as all the
 516 generated C++ code is included under the src directory.
 517
 518 I added a few minor features to SWIG to control some of the code
 519 generation.  If you want to play around with this you will need to get
 520 a recent version of SWIG from their CVS or from a daily build.  See
 521 http://www.swig.org/ for details.
 522
 523 wxPython is organized as a Python package.  This means that the
 524 directory containing the results of the build process should be a
 525 subdirectory of a directory on the PYTHONPATH.  (And preferably should
 526 be named wxPython.)  You can control where the build process will dump
 527 wxPython by setting the TARGETDIR variable for the build utility, (see
 528 below.)
 529
 530
 531 1. Build wxWindows as described in its BuildCVS.txt file.  For *nix
 532    systems I run configure with these flags:
 533
 534                 --with-gtk
 535                 --with-libjpeg
 536                 --without-odbc
 537                 --enable-unicode=no
 538                 --enable-threads=yes
 539                 --enable-socket=yes
 540                 --enable-static=no
 541                 --enable-shared=yes
 542                 --disable-std_iostreams
 543
 544    You can use whatever flags you want, but I know these work.
 545
 546    For Win32 systems I use Visual C++ 6.0, but 5.0 should work.  The
 547    build utility currently does not support any other win32 compilers.
 548
 549 2. At this point you may want to make an alias or symlink, script,
 550    batch file, whatever on the PATH that invokes
 551    $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/distrib/build.py to help simplify matters
 552    somewhat.  For example, on my win32 system I have a file named
 553    build.bat in a directory on the PATH that contains:
 554
 555    python $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/distrib/build.py %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
 556
 557
 558 3. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
 559
 560 4. Type "build -b" to build wxPython and "build -i" to install it.
 561
 562    The build.py script actually generates a Makefile based on what it
 563    finds on your system and information found in the build.cfg file.
 564    If you have troubles building or you want it built or installed in
 565    a different way, take a look at the docstring in build.py.  You may
 566    be able to override configuration options in a file named
 567    build.local.
 568
 569 5. To build and install the add-on modules, change to the appropriate
 570    directory under $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/modules and run the build
 571    utility again.
 572
 573 6. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/demo directory.
 574
 575 7. Try executing the demo program.  For example:
 576
 577     python demo.py
 578
 579 To run it without requiring a console on win32, you can use the
 580 pythonw.exe version of Python either from the command line or from a
 581 shortcut.
 582
 583
 584
 585 ----------------
 586 Robin Dunn
 587 robin@alldunn.com
 588
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 594