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, especially the .i
  36 files, as that is where the interfaces for wxPython are defined.
  37
  38 Currently this extension module is designed such that the entire
  39 application will be written in Python.  I havn't tried it yet, but I
  40 am sure that attempting to embed wxPython in a C++ wxWindows
  41 application will cause problems.  However there is a plan to support
  42 this in the future.
  43
  44
  45 What's new in 0.5.3
  46 -------------------
  47 Added wxSashWindow, wxSashEvent, wxLayoutAlgorithm, etc.
  48
  49 Various cleanup, tweaks, minor additions, etc. to maintain
  50 compatibility with the current wxWindows.
  51
  52
  53
  54 What's new in 0.5.0
  55 -------------------
  56 Changed the import semantics from "from wxPython import *" to "from
  57 wxPython.wx import *"  This is for people who are worried about
  58 namespace pollution, they can use "from wxPython import wx" and then
  59 prefix all the wxPython identifiers with "wx."
  60
  61 Added wxTaskbarIcon for wxMSW.
  62
  63 Made the events work for wxGrid.
  64
  65 Added wxConfig.
  66
  67 Added wxMiniFrame for wxGTK.
  68
  69 Changed many of the args and return values that were pointers to gdi
  70 objects to references to reflect changes in the wxWindows API.
  71
  72 Other assorted fixes and additions.
  73
  74
  75
  76
  77 What's new in 0.4.2
  78 -------------------
  79
  80 wxPython on wxGTK works!!!  Both dynamic and static on Linux and
  81 static on Solaris have been tested.  Many thanks go to Harm
  82 <H.v.d.Heijden@phys.tue.nl> for his astute detective work on tracking
  83 down a nasty DECREF bug.  Okay so I have to confess that it was just a
  84 DSM (Dumb Stupid Mistake) on my part but it was nasty none the less
  85 because the behavior was so different on different platforms.
  86
  87
  88 The dynamicly loaded module on Solaris is still segfaulting, so it
  89 must have been a different issue all along...
  90
  91
  92
  93 What's New in 0.4
  94 -----------------
  95
  96 1. Worked on wxGTK compatibility.  It is partially working.  On a
  97 Solaris/Sparc box wxPython is working but only when it is statically
  98 linked with the Python interpreter.  When built as a dyamically loaded
  99 extension module, things start acting weirdly and it soon seg-faults.
 100 And on Linux both the statically linked and the dynamically linked
 101 version segfault shortly after starting up.
 102
 103 2. Added Toolbar, StatusBar and SplitterWindow classes.
 104
 105 3. Varioius bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
 106
 107
 108
 109 Build Instructions
 110 ------------------
 111 I used SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to create the source code for the
 112 extension module.  This enabled me to only have to deal with a small
 113 amount of code and only have to bother with the exceptional issues.
 114 SWIG takes care of the rest and generates all the repetative code for
 115 me.  You don't need SWIG to build the extension module as all the
 116 generated C++ code is included under the src directory.
 117
 118 I added a few minor features to SWIG to control some of the code
 119 generation.  If you want to playaround with this the patches are in
 120 wxPython/SWIG.patches and they should be applied to the 1.1p5 version
 121 of SWIG.  These new patches are documented at
 122 http://starship.skyport.net/crew/robind/python/#swig, and they should
 123 also end up in the 1.2 version of SWIG.
 124
 125 wxPython is organized as a Python package.  This means that the
 126 directory containing the results of the build process should be a
 127 subdirectory of a directory on the PYTHONPATH.  (And preferably should
 128 be named wxPython.)  You can control where the build process will dump
 129 wxPython by setting the TARGETDIR makefile variable.  The default is
 130 $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython, where this README.txt is located.  If you
 131 leave it here then you should add $(WXWIN)/utils to your PYTHONPATH.
 132 However, you may prefer to use something that is already on your
 133 PYTHONPATH, such as the site-packages directory on Unix systems.
 134
 135
 136 Win32
 137 -----
 138
 139 1. Build wxWindows with wxUSE_RESOURCE_LOADING_IN_MSW set to 1 in
 140 include/wx/msw/setup.h so icons can be loaded dynamically.  While
 141 there, make sure wxUSE_OWNER_DRAWN is also set to 1.
 142
 143 2. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
 144
 145 3. Edit makefile.nt and specify where your python installation is at.
 146 You may also want to fiddle with the TARGETDIR variable as described
 147 above.
 148
 149 4. Run nmake -f makefile.nt
 150
 151 5. If it builds successfully, congratulations!  Move on to the next
 152 step.  If not then you can try mailing me for help.  Also, I will
 153 always have a pre-built win32 version of this extension module at
 154 http://starship.skyport.net/crew/robind/python.
 155
 156 6. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/tests directory.
 157
 158 7. Try executing the test programs.  Note that some of these print
 159 diagnositc or test info to standard output, so they will require the
 160 console version of python.  For example:
 161
 162     python test1.py
 163
 164 To run them without requiring a console, you can use the pythonw.exe
 165 version of Python either from the command line or from a shortcut.
 166
 167
 168
 169 Unix
 170 ----
 171
 172 1. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
 173
 174 2. Edit Setup.in and ensure that the flags, directories, and toolkit
 175 options are correct.  See the above commentary about TARGETDIR.  There
 176 are a few sample Setup.in.[platform] files provided.
 177
 178 3. Run this command to generate a makefile:
 179
 180     make -f Makefile.pre.in boot
 181
 182 4. Run these commands to build and then install the wxPython extension
 183 module:
 184
 185     make
 186     make install
 187
 188
 189 5. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/tests directory.
 190
 191 6. Try executing the test programs.  For example:
 192
 193     python test1.py
 194
 195
 196
 197 ------------------------
 198 10/20/1998
 199
 200 Robin Dunn
 201 robin@alldunn.com
 202
 203
 204