4 Welcome to the wonderful world of wxPython!
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:
11 There are also some other sample files there for you to play with and
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."
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
27 http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/htmlhelp/download.asp.
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
40 http://starship.python.net/mailman/listinfo/wxpython-users
42 Or you can send mail directly to the list using this address:
44 wxpython-users@starship.python.net
46 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
50 This is a quick bug-fix release to take care of a few nasties that
51 crept in at the last minute before 2.1.4 was called done. No new
59 This release is NOT syncronized with a snapshot release of wxGTK or
60 wxMSW. For MSW this isn't much of a problem since you can get the
61 binaries from the web site. For other platforms you'll have to build
62 wxGTK from CVS. (See http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/cvs.htm)
63 To get the same set of sources from CVS that I used, checkout using
66 Now back to what's new...
68 Much more support for event-less callbacks and add-on modules.
70 Created add-on module with wxOGL classes.
72 Added wxWindow.GetChildren(). Be careful of this. It returns a *copy*
73 of the list of the window's children. While you are using the list if
74 anything changes in the real list (a child is deleted, etc.) then the
75 list you are holding will suddenly have window references to garbage
76 memory and your app will likely crash. But if you are careful it works
79 Added a bunch of new and missing methods to wxTreeCrtl. The
80 SortChildren method is now supported, but currently only for the
83 Added typemaps for wxSize, wxPoint, wxRealPoint, and wxRect that allow
84 either the actual objects or Python sequence values to be used. For
85 example, the following are equivallent:
87 win = wxWindow(parent, size = wxSize(100, 100))
88 win = wxWindow(parent, size = (100, 100))
90 Super-charged the wxHtml module. You can now create your own tag
91 handlers and also have access to the parser and cell classes. There
92 is a tag handler in the library at wxPython.lib.wxpTag that
93 understands the WXP tag and is able to place wxPython windows on HTML
94 pages. See the demo for an example.
96 A bunch of the methods of wxMenuBar were previously ifdef'd out for
97 wxGTK. Added them back in since the methods exist now.
99 Wrapped the wxHtmlHelpController and related classes.
101 Wrapped the C++ versions of wxSizer and firends. The Python-only
102 versions are still in the library, but depreciated. (You will get a
103 warning message if you try to use them, but the warning can be
104 disabled.) The usage of the C++ versions is slightly different, and
105 the functionality of wxBorderSizer is now part of wxBoxSizer. I have
106 added a few methods to wxSizer to try and make the transition as
107 smooth as possible, I combined all Add methods into a single method
108 that handles all cases, added an AddMany method, etc. One step I did
109 not take was to make the default value of flag in the Add method be
110 wxGROW. This would have made it more backward compatible, but less
111 portable to and from wxWin C++ code. Please see the docs and demo for
114 Added wxPyEvent and wxPyCommandEvent classes, derived from wxEvent and
115 wxCommandEvent. Each of them has SetPyData and GetPyData methods that
116 accept or return a single Python object. You can use these classes
117 directly or derive from them to create your own types of event objects
118 that can pass through the wxWindows event system without loosing their
119 Python parts (as long as they are stored with SetPyData.) Stay tuned
120 for more info and examples in future releases.
122 Added wxPython.lib.grids as an example of how to derive a new sizer
123 from the C++ sizers. In this module you will find wxGridSizer and
124 wxFlexGridSizer. wxGridSizer arrainges its items in a grid in which
125 all the widths and heights are the same. wxFlexgridSizer allows
126 different widths and heights, and you can also specify rows and/or
127 columns that are growable. See the demo for a couple examples for how
130 Added the wxValidator class, and created a class named wxPyValidator
131 that should be used for the base class of any Python validators. See
132 the demo for an example. Please note that you MUST implement a Clone
133 method in your validator classes because of the way some things work
134 in the underlying C++ library. I did not add wxTextValidator because
135 of some issues of how it transfers data to and from a wxString, which
136 in wxPython is automatically translated to and from Python strings, so
137 there would never be a concrete wxString that would hang around long
138 enough for the validator to do its job. On the other hand, it should
139 be real easy to duplicate the functionality of wxTextValidator in a
140 pure Python class derived from wxPyValidator.
142 I've finally added a feature that has been on my list for close to two
143 years! Ever wondered what that zero is for when you create your app
144 object? Well now you can leave it out or explicitly set it to a true
145 value. This value now controls what is to be done with sys.stdout and
146 sys.stderr. A false value leaves them alone, and a true value sets
147 them to an instance of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow. (On windows the
148 default is true, on unix platforms the default is false.) This class
149 creates a frame containing a wxTextCtrl as soon as anything is written
150 to sys.stdout or sys.stderr. If you close the window it will come
151 back again the next time something is written. (You can call
152 app.RestoreStdio to turn this off.) If you would rather that the stdio be
153 redirected to a file, you can provide a second parameter to your app
154 object's constructor that is a filename. If you want to use your own
155 class instead of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow you can either implement
156 RedirectStdio() in you app class or change the value of
157 wxApp.outputWindowClass like this:
160 outputWindowClass = MyClass
164 self.SetTopWindow(frame)
167 Please see the implementation of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow and wxApp in
168 wx.py for more details. A few words of caution: if you are running
169 your app in a debugger, changing sys.stdout and sys.stderr is likely
170 to really screw things up.
172 Added wxCaret. Unfortunately it's author has still not documented it
173 in the wxWindows docs...
175 Some new 3rd party contributions in wxPython.lib. PyShell, in
176 shell.py is an interesting implementaion of an interactive Python
177 shell in wxWindows. floatbar.py has a class derived from wxTooBar
178 that can sense mouse drags and then reparent itself into another
179 frame. Moving the new frame close to where it came from puts the tool
180 bar back into the original parent. (Unfortunately there is currently
181 a bug in wxGTK's wxFrame.SetToolBar so the FloatBar has some
190 This release is syncronized with release 2.1 snapshot 9 of wxWindows.
192 Switched to using SWIG from CVS (see http://swig.cs.uchicago.edu/cvs.html)
193 for some of the new features and such. Also they have encorporated my
194 patches so there is really no reason to stick with the current (very
195 old) release... This version of SWIG gives the following new
198 1. Keyword arguments. You no longer have to specify all the
199 parameters with defaults to a method just to specify a
200 non-default value on the end. You can now do this instead:
202 win = wxWindow(parent, -1, style = mystyle)
204 2. There is now an an equivalence between Python's None and C++'s
205 NULL. This means that any methods that might return NULL will
206 now return None and you can use none where wxWindows might be
207 expecting NULL. This makes things much more snake-ish.
210 There is a new build system based on a new Python program instead of
211 raw makefiles. Now wxPython builds are virtually the same on MSW or
212 Unix systems. See the end of this file for new build instructions and
213 see distrib/build.py for more details.
215 wxDC.Bilt now includes the useMask parameter, and has been split into
216 two different versions. wxDC.BlitXY is like what was there before and
217 takes raw coordinants and sizes, and the new wxDC.Blit is for the new
218 interface using wxPoints and a wxSize.
227 Added the missing wxWindow.GetUpdateRegion() method.
229 Made a new change in SWIG (update your patches everybody) that
230 provides a fix for global shadow objects that get an exception in
231 their __del__ when their extension module has already been deleted.
232 It was only a 1 line change in .../SWIG/Modules/pycpp.cxx at about
233 line 496 if you want to do it by hand.
235 It is now possible to run through MainLoop more than once in any one
236 process. The cleanup that used to happen as MainLoop completed (and
237 prevented it from running again) has been delayed until the wxc module
238 is being unloaded by Python.
240 I fixed a bunch of stuff in the C++ version of wxGrid so it wouldn't
241 make wxPython look bad.
243 wxWindow.PopupMenu() now takes a wxPoint instead of x,y. Added
244 wxWindow.PopupMenuXY to be consistent with some other methods.
246 Added wxGrid.SetEditInPlace and wxGrid.GetEditInPlace.
248 You can now provide your own app.MainLoop method. See
249 wxPython/demo/demoMainLoop.py for an example and some explaination.
251 Got the in-place-edit for the wxTreeCtrl fixed and added some demo
252 code to show how to use it.
254 Put the wxIcon constructor back in for GTK as it now has one that
257 Added wxGrid.GetCells
259 Added wxSystemSettings static methods as functions with names like
260 wxSystemSettings_GetSystemColour.
262 Removed wxPyMenu since using menu callbacks have been depreciated in
263 wxWindows. Use wxMenu and events instead.
265 Added alternate wxBitmap constructor (for MSW only) as
266 wxBitmapFromData(data, type, width, height, depth = 1)
268 Added a helper function named wxPyTypeCast that can convert shadow
269 objects of one type into shadow objects of another type. (Like doing
270 a down-cast.) See the implementation in wx.py for some docs.
272 Fixed wxImage GetData and SetData to properly use String objects for
275 Added access methods to wxGridEvent.
277 New Makefile/Setup files supporting multiple dynamic extension modules
280 Fixes for the wxGLCanvas demo to work around a strange bug in gtk.
282 SWIG support routines now compiled separately instead of being bundled
291 Fixed wxComboBox.SetSelection so that it actually sets the selected
292 item. (Actually just removed it from wxPython and let it default to
293 wxChoice.SetSelection which was already doing the right thing.)
295 Added the Printing Framework.
297 Switched back to using the wxWindows DLL for the pre-built Win32
298 version. The problem was needing to reinitialize static class info
299 data after loading each extension module.
301 Lots of little tweaks and additions to reflect changes to various
304 Fixed a bug with attaching objects to tree items. Actually was a
305 symptom of a larger problem with not obtaining the interpreter lock
306 when doing any Py_DECREFs.
308 wxSizer and friends. Sizers are layout tools that manage a colection
309 of windows and sizers. Different types of sizers apply different
310 types of layout algorithms. You saw it here first! These classes are
311 not even in the wxWindows C++ library yet!
317 Bug fix for ListCtrl in test4.py (Was a missing file... DSM!)
319 Bug fix for occassional GPF on Win32 systems upon termination of a
320 wxPython application.
322 Added wxListBox.GetSelections returning selections as a Tuple.
324 Added a wxTreeItemData that is able to hold any Python object and be
325 associated with items in a wxTreeCtrl. Added test pytree.py to show
328 Added wxSafeYield function.
330 OpenGL Canvas can be optionally compiled in to wxPython.
332 Awesome new Demo Framework for showing off wxPython and for learning
335 The pre-built Win32 version is no longer distributing the wxWindows
336 DLL. It is statically linked with the wxWindows library instead.
338 Added a couple missing items from the docs.
340 Added wxImage, wxImageHandler, wxPNGHandler, wxJPEGHandler,
341 wxGIFHandler and wxBMPHandler.
343 Added new methods to wxTextCtrl.
345 Fixed some problems with how SWIG was wrapping some wxTreeCtrl
352 Support for using Python threads in wxPython apps.
354 Several missing methods from various classes.
362 Added DLG_PNT and DLG_SZE convienience methods to wxWindow class.
364 Added missing constructor and other methods for wxMenuItem.
370 Just a quickie update to fix the self-installer to be compatible with
371 Python 1.5.2b2's Registry settings.
376 Well obviously the numbering scheme has changed. I did this to
377 reflect the fact that this truly is the second major revision of
378 wxPython, (well the third actually if you count the one I did for
379 wxWindows 1.68 and then threw away...) and also that it is associated
380 with the 2.0 version of wxWindows.
382 I have finally started documenting wxPython. There are several pages
383 in the wxWindows documentation tree specifically about wxPython, and I
384 have added notes within the class references about where and how wxPython
385 diverges from wxWindows.
387 Added wxWindow_FromHWND(hWnd) for wxMSW to construct a wxWindow from a
388 window handle. If you can get the window handle into the python code,
389 it should just work... More news on this later.
391 Added wxImageList, wxToolTip.
393 Re-enabled wxConfig.DeleteAll() since it is reportedly fixed for the
396 As usual, some bug fixes, tweaks, etc.
402 Added wxSashWindow, wxSashEvent, wxLayoutAlgorithm, etc.
404 Various cleanup, tweaks, minor additions, etc. to maintain
405 compatibility with the current wxWindows.
411 Changed the import semantics from "from wxPython import *" to "from
412 wxPython.wx import *" This is for people who are worried about
413 namespace pollution, they can use "from wxPython import wx" and then
414 prefix all the wxPython identifiers with "wx."
416 Added wxTaskbarIcon for wxMSW.
418 Made the events work for wxGrid.
422 Added wxMiniFrame for wxGTK.
424 Changed many of the args and return values that were pointers to gdi
425 objects to references to reflect changes in the wxWindows API.
427 Other assorted fixes and additions.
435 wxPython on wxGTK works!!! Both dynamic and static on Linux and
436 static on Solaris have been tested. Many thanks go to Harm
437 <H.v.d.Heijden@phys.tue.nl> for his astute detective work on tracking
438 down a nasty DECREF bug. Okay so I have to confess that it was just a
439 DSM (Dumb Stupid Mistake) on my part but it was nasty none the less
440 because the behavior was so different on different platforms.
442 The dynamicly loaded module on Solaris is still segfaulting, so it
443 must have been a different issue all along...
450 1. Worked on wxGTK compatibility. It is partially working. On a
451 Solaris/Sparc box wxPython is working but only when it is statically
452 linked with the Python interpreter. When built as a dyamically loaded
453 extension module, things start acting weirdly and it soon seg-faults.
454 And on Linux both the statically linked and the dynamically linked
455 version segfault shortly after starting up.
457 2. Added Toolbar, StatusBar and SplitterWindow classes.
459 3. Varioius bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
461 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
467 I used SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to create the source code for the
468 extension module. This enabled me to only have to deal with a small
469 amount of code and only have to bother with the exceptional issues.
470 SWIG takes care of the rest and generates all the repetative code for
471 me. You don't need SWIG to build the extension module as all the
472 generated C++ code is included under the src directory.
474 I added a few minor features to SWIG to control some of the code
475 generation. If you want to play around with this you will need to get
476 a recent version of SWIG from their CVS or from a daily build. See
477 http://www.swig.org/ for details.
479 wxPython is organized as a Python package. This means that the
480 directory containing the results of the build process should be a
481 subdirectory of a directory on the PYTHONPATH. (And preferably should
482 be named wxPython.) You can control where the build process will dump
483 wxPython by setting the TARGETDIR variable for the build utility, (see
487 1. Build wxWindows as described in its BuildCVS.txt file. For *nix
488 systems I run configure with these flags:
498 --disable-std_iostreams
500 You can use whatever flags you want, but I know these work.
502 For Win32 systems I use Visual C++ 6.0, but 5.0 should work. The
503 build utility currently does not support any other win32 compilers.
505 2. At this point you may want to make an alias or symlink, script,
506 batch file, whatever on the PATH that invokes
507 $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/distrib/build.py to help simplify matters
508 somewhat. For example, on my win32 system I have a file named
509 build.bat in a directory on the PATH that contains:
511 python $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/distrib/build.py %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
514 3. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
516 4. Type "build -b" to build wxPython and "build -i" to install it.
518 The build.py script actually generates a Makefile based on what it
519 finds on your system and information found in the build.cfg file.
520 If you have troubles building or you want it built or installed in
521 a different way, take a look at the docstring in build.py. You may
522 be able to override configuration options in a file named
525 5. To build and install the add-on modules, change to the appropriate
526 directory under $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/modules and run the build
529 6. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/demo directory.
531 7. Try executing the demo program. For example:
535 To run it without requiring a console on win32, you can use the
536 pythonw.exe version of Python either from the command line or from a
projects / wxWidgets.git / blob