utils/wxPython/README.txt

   1 wxPython README
   2 ---------------
   3
   4 Introduction
   5 ------------
   6 The code in this subtree is a Python Extension Module that enables the
   7 use of wxWindows from the Python language.  So what is Python?  Go to
   8 http://www.python.org to learn more but in a nutshell, it's an
   9 extremly cool object oriented language.  It's easier than Perl and
  10 nearly as powerful.  It runs on more platforms than Java, and by some
  11 reports, is even faster than Java with a JIT compiler!
  12
  13 So why would you want to use wxPython over just C++ and wxWindows?
  14 Personally I prefer using Python for everything.  I only use C++ when
  15 I absolutly have to eek more performance out of an algorithm, and even
  16 then I ususally code it as an extension module and leave the majority
  17 of the program in Python.  Another good thing to use wxPython for is
  18 quick prototyping of your wxWindows apps.  With C++ you have to
  19 continuously go though the edit-compile-link-run cycle, which can be
  20 quite time comsuming.  With Python it is only an edit-run cycle.  You
  21 can easily build an application in a few hours with Python that would
  22 normally take a few days with C++.  Converting a wxPython app to a
  23 C++/wxWindows app should be a straight forward task.
  24
  25 This extension module attempts to mirror the class heiarchy of
  26 wxWindows as closely as possble.  This means that there is a wxFrame
  27 class in wxPython that looks, smells, tastes and acts almost the same
  28 as the wxFrame class in the C++ version.  Unfortunatly, I wasn't able
  29 to match things exactly because of differences in the languages, but
  30 the differences should be easy to absorb because they are natural to
  31 Python.  For example, some methods that return mutliple values via
  32 argument pointers in C++ will return a tuple of values in Python.
  33 These differences have not been documented yet so if something isn't
  34 working the same as described in the wxWindows documents the best
  35 thing to do is to scan through the wxPython sources.
  36
  37 Currently this extension module is designed such that the entire
  38 application will be written in Python.  I havn't tried it yet, but I
  39 am sure that attempting to embed wxPython in a C++ wxWindows
  40 application will cause problems.  However there is a plan to support
  41 this in the future.
  42
  43
  44 What's New in 0.4
  45 -----------------
  46 1. Worked on wxGTK compatibility.  It is partially working.  On a
  47 Solaris/Sparc box wxPython is working but only when it is statically
  48 linked with the Python interpreter.  When built as a dyamically loaded
  49 extension module, things acting weirdly and it soon seg-faults.  And on
  50 Linux ???????  (I don't know.  I can't get wxGTK to build right now.
  51 I'll have to look into that... :-)
  52
  53 2. Added Toolbar, StatusBar and SplitterWindow classes.
  54
  55 3. Varioius bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
  56
  57
  58
  59 Build Instructions
  60 ------------------
  61 I used SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to create the source code for the
  62 extension module.  This enabled me to only have to deal with a small
  63 amount of code and only have to bother with the exceptional issues.
  64 SWIG takes care of the rest and generates all the repetative code for
  65 me.  You don't need SWIG to build the extension module as all the
  66 generated C++ code is included in the src directory.
  67
  68 wxPython is organized as a Python package.  This means that the
  69 directory containing the results of the build process should be a
  70 subdirectory of a directory on the PYTHONPATH.  (And preferably should
  71 be named wxPython.)  You can control where the bulid process will dump
  72 wxPython by setting the TARGETDIR makefile variable.  The default is
  73 $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython, where this README.txt is located.  If you
  74 leave it here then you should add $(WXWIN)/utils to your PYTHONPATH.
  75 However, you may prefer to use something that is already on your
  76 PYTHONPATH, such as the site-packages directory on Unix systems.
  77
  78
  79 Win32
  80 -----
  81
  82 1. Build wxWindows with wxUSE_RESOURCE_LOADING_IN_MSW set to 1 in
  83 include/wx/msw/setup.h so icons can be loaded dynamically.  While
  84 there, make sure wxUSE_OWNER_DRAWN is also set to 1.
  85
  86 2. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
  87
  88 3. Edit makefile.nt and specify where your python installation is at.
  89 You may also want to fiddle with the TARGETDIR variable as described
  90 above.
  91
  92 4. Run nmake -f makefile.nt
  93
  94 5. If it builds successfully, congratulations!  Move on to the next
  95 step.  If not then you can try mailing me for help.  Also, I will
  96 always have a pre-built win32 version of this extension module at
  97 http://starship.skyport.net/crew/robind/python.
  98
  99 6. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/tests directory.
 100
 101 7. Try executing the test programs.  Note that some of these print
 102 diagnositc or test info to standard output, so they will require the
 103 console version of python.  For example:
 104
 105     python test1.py
 106
 107 To run them without requiring a console, you can use the pythonw.exe
 108 version of Python either from the command line or from a shortcut.
 109
 110
 111
 112 Unix
 113 ----
 114
 115 NOTE:  I don't have wxPython working yet with wxGTK, so if you aren't
 116 using Win32 you can skip the rest of this file and check back in a
 117 week or so.
 118
 119
 120 1. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
 121
 122 2. Edit Setup.in and ensure that the flags, directories, and toolkit
 123 options are correct.  See the above commentary about TARGETDIR.
 124
 125 3. Run this command to generate a makefile:
 126
 127     make -f Makefile.pre.in boot
 128
 129 4. Run these commands to build and then install the wxPython extension
 130 module:
 131
 132     make
 133     make install
 134
 135
 136 5. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/tests directory.
 137
 138 6. Try executing the test programs.  For example:
 139
 140     python test1.py
 141
 142
 143
 144 ------------------------
 145 8/8/1998
 146
 147 Robin Dunn
 148 robin@alldunn.com