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