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 2.1.12
  49 --------------------
  50 Updated wxMVCTree and added a demo for it.
  51
  52 Added a wrapper class for the Visualization ToolKit (or VTK) in the
  53 wxPython.lib.vtk module.  (http://www.kitware.com/)
  54
  55
  56
  57
  58 What's new in 2.1.11
  59 --------------------
  60 Skipped a few version numbers so wxMSW, wxGTK and wxPython are all
  61 syncronized.
  62
  63 wxImage.SetData now makes a copy of the image data before giving it to
  64 wxImage.  I mistakenly thought that wxImage would copy the data
  65 itself.
  66
  67 Fixed wxMSW's notebook so the pages get their size set as they are
  68 being added.  This should remove the need for our
  69 wxNotebook.ResizeChildren hack.
  70
  71 wxPanels now support AutoLayout, and wxNotebooks and wxSplitterWindows
  72 no longer tell their children to Layout() themselves.  This will
  73 probably only effect you if you have a wxWindow with AutoLayout inside
  74 a notebook or splitter.  If so, either change it to a wxPanel or add
  75 an EVT_SIZE handler that calls Layout().
  76
  77 Fixed deadlock problem that happened when using threads.
  78
  79 Added new HTML printing classes.
  80
  81 Added wxWindow.GetHandle
  82
  83 Apparently wxMouseEvent.Position has been depreciated in wxWindows as
  84 it is no longer available by default.  You can use GetPositionTuple
  85 (returning a tuple with x,y) instead, or GetPosition (returning a
  86 wxPoint.)
  87
  88 Added wxPostEvent function that allows events to be posted and then
  89 processed later.  This is a thread-safe way to interact with the GUI
  90 thread from other threads.
  91
  92 Added Clipboard and Drag-and-Drop classes.
  93
  94 Added wxFontEnumerator.
  95
  96 Many updates to wxMenu, wxMenuBar.
  97
  98 wxPyEvent and wxPyCommandEvent derived classes now give you the actual
  99 Python object in the event handler instead of a new shadow.
 100
 101 Added a Calendar widget from Lorne White to the library.
 102
 103 Made some fixes to the wxFloatbar.  It still has some troubles on
 104 wxGTK...
 105
 106 Added an MVC tree control from Bryn Keller to the library.
 107
 108
 109
 110
 111 What's new in 2.1.5
 112 -------------------
 113 This is a quick bug-fix release to take care of a few nasties that
 114 crept in at the last minute before 2.1.4 was called done.  No new
 115 major features.
 116
 117
 118
 119 What's new in 2.1.4
 120 --------------------
 121
 122 This release is NOT syncronized with a snapshot release of wxGTK or
 123 wxMSW.  For MSW this isn't much of a problem since you can get the
 124 binaries from the web site.  For other platforms you'll have to build
 125 wxGTK from CVS.  (See http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/cvs.htm)
 126 To get the same set of sources from CVS that I used, checkout using
 127 the wxPy-2-1-4 tag.
 128
 129 Now back to what's new...
 130
 131 Much more support for event-less callbacks and add-on modules.
 132
 133 Created add-on module with wxOGL classes.
 134
 135 Added wxWindow.GetChildren().  Be careful of this.  It returns a *copy*
 136 of the list of the window's children.  While you are using the list if
 137 anything changes in the real list (a child is deleted, etc.) then the
 138 list you are holding will suddenly have window references to garbage
 139 memory and your app will likely crash.  But if you are careful it works
 140 great!
 141
 142 Added a bunch of new and missing methods to wxTreeCrtl.  The
 143 SortChildren method is now supported, but currently only for the
 144 default sort order.
 145
 146 Added typemaps for wxSize, wxPoint, wxRealPoint, and wxRect that allow
 147 either the actual objects or Python sequence values to be used.  For
 148 example, the following are equivallent:
 149
 150     win = wxWindow(parent, size = wxSize(100, 100))
 151     win = wxWindow(parent, size = (100, 100))
 152
 153 Super-charged the wxHtml module.  You can now create your own tag
 154 handlers and also have access to the parser and cell classes.  There
 155 is a tag handler in the library at wxPython.lib.wxpTag that
 156 understands the WXP tag and is able to place wxPython windows on HTML
 157 pages.  See the demo for an example.
 158
 159 A bunch of the methods of wxMenuBar were previously ifdef'd out for
 160 wxGTK.  Added them back in since the methods exist now.
 161
 162 Wrapped the wxHtmlHelpController and related classes.
 163
 164 Wrapped the C++ versions of wxSizer and friends.  The Python-only
 165 versions are still in the library, but depreciated.  (You will get a
 166 warning message if you try to use them, but the warning can be
 167 disabled.) The usage of the C++ versions is slightly different, and
 168 the functionality of wxBorderSizer is now part of wxBoxSizer.  I have
 169 added a few methods to wxSizer to try and make the transition as
 170 smooth as possible, I combined all Add methods into a single method
 171 that handles all cases, added an AddMany method, etc.  One step I did
 172 not take was to make the default value of flag in the Add method be
 173 wxGROW.  This would have made it more backward compatible, but less
 174 portable to and from wxWin C++ code.  Please see the docs and demo for
 175 further details.
 176
 177 Added wxPyEvent and wxPyCommandEvent classes, derived from wxEvent and
 178 wxCommandEvent.  Each of them has SetPyData and GetPyData methods that
 179 accept or return a single Python object.  You can use these classes
 180 directly or derive from them to create your own types of event objects
 181 that can pass through the wxWindows event system without loosing their
 182 Python parts (as long as they are stored with SetPyData.)  Stay tuned
 183 for more info and examples in future releases.
 184
 185 Added wxPython.lib.grids as an example of how to derive a new sizer
 186 from the C++ sizers.  In this module you will find wxGridSizer and
 187 wxFlexGridSizer.  wxGridSizer arrainges its items in a grid in which
 188 all the widths and heights are the same.  wxFlexgridSizer allows
 189 different widths and heights, and you can also specify rows and/or
 190 columns that are growable.  See the demo for a couple examples for how
 191 to use them.
 192
 193 Added the wxValidator class, and created a class named wxPyValidator
 194 that should be used for the base class of any Python validators.  See
 195 the demo for an example.  Please note that you MUST implement a Clone
 196 method in your validator classes because of the way some things work
 197 in the underlying C++ library.  I did not add wxTextValidator because
 198 of some issues of how it transfers data to and from a wxString, which
 199 in wxPython is automatically translated to and from Python strings, so
 200 there would never be a concrete wxString that would hang around long
 201 enough for the validator to do its job.  On the other hand, it should
 202 be real easy to duplicate the functionality of wxTextValidator in a
 203 pure Python class derived from wxPyValidator.
 204
 205 I've finally added a feature that has been on my list for close to two
 206 years!  Ever wondered what that zero is for when you create your app
 207 object?  Well now you can leave it out or explicitly set it to a true
 208 value.  This value now controls what is to be done with sys.stdout and
 209 sys.stderr.  A false value leaves them alone, and a true value sets
 210 them to an instance of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow.  (On windows the
 211 default is true, on unix platforms the default is false.)  This class
 212 creates a frame containing a wxTextCtrl as soon as anything is written
 213 to sys.stdout or sys.stderr.  If you close the window it will come
 214 back again the next time something is written.  (You can call
 215 app.RestoreStdio to turn this off.)  If you would rather that the stdio be
 216 redirected to a file, you can provide a second parameter to your app
 217 object's constructor that is a filename.  If you want to use your own
 218 class instead of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow you can either implement
 219 RedirectStdio() in you app class or change the value of
 220 wxApp.outputWindowClass like this:
 221
 222     class MyApp(wxApp):
 223         outputWindowClass = MyClass
 224
 225         def OnInit(self):
 226             frame = MyFrame()
 227             self.SetTopWindow(frame)
 228             return true
 229
 230 Please see the implementation of wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow and wxApp in
 231 wx.py for more details.  A few words of caution:  if you are running
 232 your app in a debugger, changing sys.stdout and sys.stderr is likely
 233 to really screw things up.
 234
 235 Added wxCaret.  Unfortunately it's author has still not documented it
 236 in the wxWindows docs...
 237
 238 Some new 3rd party contributions in wxPython.lib.  PyShell, in
 239 shell.py is an interesting implementaion of an interactive Python
 240 shell in wxWindows.  floatbar.py has a class derived from wxToolBar
 241 that can sense mouse drags and then reparent itself into another
 242 frame. Moving the new frame close to where it came from puts the tool
 243 bar back into the original parent.  (Unfortunately there is currently
 244 a bug in wxGTK's wxFrame.SetToolBar so the FloatBar has some
 245 problems...)
 246
 247
 248
 249
 250 What's new in 2.1b3
 251 --------------------
 252
 253 This release is syncronized with release 2.1 snapshot 9 of wxWindows.
 254
 255 Switched to using SWIG from CVS (see http://swig.cs.uchicago.edu/cvs.html)
 256 for some of the new features and such.  Also they have encorporated my
 257 patches so there is really no reason to stick with the current (very
 258 old) release...  This version of SWIG gives the following new
 259 features:
 260
 261     1. Keyword arguments.  You no longer have to specify all the
 262        parameters with defaults to a method just to specify a
 263        non-default value on the end.  You can now do this instead:
 264
 265           win = wxWindow(parent, -1, style = mystyle)
 266
 267     2. There is now an an equivalence between Python's None and C++'s
 268        NULL.  This means that any methods that might return NULL will
 269        now return None and you can use none where wxWindows might be
 270        expecting NULL.  This makes things much more snake-ish.
 271
 272
 273 There is a new build system based on a new Python program instead of
 274 raw makefiles.  Now wxPython builds are virtually the same on MSW or
 275 Unix systems.  See the end of this file for new build instructions and
 276 see distrib/build.py for more details.
 277
 278 wxDC.Bilt now includes the useMask parameter, and has been split into
 279 two different versions.  wxDC.BlitXY is like what was there before and
 280 takes raw coordinants and sizes, and the new wxDC.Blit is for the new
 281 interface using wxPoints and a wxSize.
 282
 283
 284
 285
 286
 287 What's new in 2.1b2
 288 --------------------
 289
 290 Added the missing wxWindow.GetUpdateRegion() method.
 291
 292 Made a new change in SWIG (update your patches everybody) that
 293 provides a fix for global shadow objects that get an exception in
 294 their __del__ when their extension module has already been deleted.
 295 It was only a 1 line change in .../SWIG/Modules/pycpp.cxx at about
 296 line 496 if you want to do it by hand.
 297
 298 It is now possible to run through MainLoop more than once in any one
 299 process.  The cleanup that used to happen as MainLoop completed (and
 300 prevented it from running again) has been delayed until the wxc module
 301 is being unloaded by Python.
 302
 303 I fixed a bunch of stuff in the C++ version of wxGrid so it wouldn't
 304 make wxPython look bad.
 305
 306 wxWindow.PopupMenu() now takes a wxPoint instead of  x,y.  Added
 307 wxWindow.PopupMenuXY to be consistent with some other methods.
 308
 309 Added wxGrid.SetEditInPlace and wxGrid.GetEditInPlace.
 310
 311 You can now provide your own app.MainLoop method.  See
 312 wxPython/demo/demoMainLoop.py for an example and some explaination.
 313
 314 Got the in-place-edit for the wxTreeCtrl fixed and added some demo
 315 code to show how to use it.
 316
 317 Put the wxIcon constructor back in for GTK as it now has one that
 318 matches MSW's.
 319
 320 Added wxGrid.GetCells
 321
 322 Added wxSystemSettings static methods as functions with names like
 323 wxSystemSettings_GetSystemColour.
 324
 325 Removed wxPyMenu since using menu callbacks have been depreciated in
 326 wxWindows.  Use wxMenu and events instead.
 327
 328 Added alternate wxBitmap constructor (for MSW only) as
 329       wxBitmapFromData(data, type, width, height, depth = 1)
 330
 331 Added a helper function named wxPyTypeCast that can convert shadow
 332 objects of one type into shadow objects of another type.  (Like doing
 333 a down-cast.)  See the implementation in wx.py for some docs.
 334
 335 Fixed wxImage GetData and SetData to properly use String objects for
 336 data transfer.
 337
 338 Added access methods to wxGridEvent.
 339
 340 New Makefile/Setup files supporting multiple dynamic extension modules
 341 for unix systems.
 342
 343 Fixes for the wxGLCanvas demo to work around a strange bug in gtk.
 344
 345 SWIG support routines now compiled separately instead of being bundled
 346 in wx.cpp.
 347
 348
 349
 350
 351
 352 What's new in 2.1b1
 353 --------------------
 354 Fixed wxComboBox.SetSelection so that it actually sets the selected
 355 item.  (Actually just removed it from wxPython and let it default to
 356 wxChoice.SetSelection which was already doing the right thing.)
 357
 358 Added the Printing Framework.
 359
 360 Switched back to using the wxWindows DLL for the pre-built Win32
 361 version.  The problem was needing to reinitialize static class info
 362 data after loading each extension module.
 363
 364 Lots of little tweaks and additions to reflect changes to various
 365 wxWindows classes.
 366
 367 Fixed a bug with attaching objects to tree items.  Actually was a
 368 symptom of a larger problem with not obtaining the interpreter lock
 369 when doing any Py_DECREFs.
 370
 371 wxSizer and friends.  Sizers are layout tools that manage a colection
 372 of windows and sizers.  Different types of sizers apply different
 373 types of layout algorithms.  You saw it here first!  These classes are
 374 not even in the wxWindows C++ library yet!
 375
 376
 377
 378 What's new in 2.0b9
 379 -------------------
 380 Bug fix for ListCtrl in test4.py (Was a missing file...  DSM!)
 381
 382 Bug fix for occassional GPF on Win32 systems upon termination of a
 383 wxPython application.
 384
 385 Added wxListBox.GetSelections returning selections as a Tuple.
 386
 387 Added a wxTreeItemData that is able to hold any Python object and be
 388 associated with items in a wxTreeCtrl.  Added test pytree.py to show
 389 this feature off.
 390
 391 Added wxSafeYield function.
 392
 393 OpenGL Canvas can be optionally compiled in to wxPython.
 394
 395 Awesome new Demo Framework for showing off wxPython and for learning
 396 how it all works.
 397
 398 The pre-built Win32 version is no longer distributing the wxWindows
 399 DLL.  It is statically linked with the wxWindows library instead.
 400
 401 Added a couple missing items from the docs.
 402
 403 Added wxImage, wxImageHandler, wxPNGHandler, wxJPEGHandler,
 404 wxGIFHandler and wxBMPHandler.
 405
 406 Added new methods to wxTextCtrl.
 407
 408 Fixed some problems with how SWIG was wrapping some wxTreeCtrl
 409 methods.
 410
 411
 412
 413 What's new in 2.0b8
 414 -------------------
 415 Support for using Python threads in wxPython apps.
 416
 417 Several missing methods from various classes.
 418
 419 Various bug fixes.
 420
 421
 422
 423 What's new in 2.0b7
 424 -------------------
 425 Added DLG_PNT and DLG_SZE convienience methods to wxWindow class.
 426
 427 Added missing constructor and other methods for wxMenuItem.
 428
 429
 430
 431 What's new in 2.0b6
 432 -------------------
 433 Just a quickie update to fix the self-installer to be compatible with
 434 Python 1.5.2b2's Registry settings.
 435
 436
 437 What's new in 2.0b5
 438 -------------------
 439 Well obviously the numbering scheme has changed.  I did this to
 440 reflect the fact that this truly is the second major revision of
 441 wxPython, (well the third actually if you count the one I did for
 442 wxWindows 1.68 and then threw away...) and also that it is associated
 443 with the 2.0 version of wxWindows.
 444
 445 I have finally started documenting wxPython.  There are several pages
 446 in the wxWindows documentation tree specifically about wxPython, and I
 447 have added notes within the class references about where and how wxPython
 448 diverges from wxWindows.
 449
 450 Added wxWindow_FromHWND(hWnd) for wxMSW to construct a wxWindow from a
 451 window handle.  If you can get the window handle into the python code,
 452 it should just work...  More news on this later.
 453
 454 Added wxImageList, wxToolTip.
 455
 456 Re-enabled wxConfig.DeleteAll() since it is reportedly fixed for the
 457 wxRegConfig class.
 458
 459 As usual, some bug fixes, tweaks, etc.
 460
 461
 462
 463 What's new in 0.5.3
 464 -------------------
 465 Added wxSashWindow, wxSashEvent, wxLayoutAlgorithm, etc.
 466
 467 Various cleanup, tweaks, minor additions, etc. to maintain
 468 compatibility with the current wxWindows.
 469
 470
 471
 472 What's new in 0.5.0
 473 -------------------
 474 Changed the import semantics from "from wxPython import *" to "from
 475 wxPython.wx import *"  This is for people who are worried about
 476 namespace pollution, they can use "from wxPython import wx" and then
 477 prefix all the wxPython identifiers with "wx."
 478
 479 Added wxTaskbarIcon for wxMSW.
 480
 481 Made the events work for wxGrid.
 482
 483 Added wxConfig.
 484
 485 Added wxMiniFrame for wxGTK.
 486
 487 Changed many of the args and return values that were pointers to gdi
 488 objects to references to reflect changes in the wxWindows API.
 489
 490 Other assorted fixes and additions.
 491
 492
 493
 494
 495 What's new in 0.4.2
 496 -------------------
 497
 498 wxPython on wxGTK works!!!  Both dynamic and static on Linux and
 499 static on Solaris have been tested.  Many thanks go to Harm
 500 <H.v.d.Heijden@phys.tue.nl> for his astute detective work on tracking
 501 down a nasty DECREF bug.  Okay so I have to confess that it was just a
 502 DSM (Dumb Stupid Mistake) on my part but it was nasty none the less
 503 because the behavior was so different on different platforms.
 504
 505 The dynamicly loaded module on Solaris is still segfaulting, so it
 506 must have been a different issue all along...
 507
 508
 509
 510 What's New in 0.4
 511 -----------------
 512
 513 1. Worked on wxGTK compatibility.  It is partially working.  On a
 514 Solaris/Sparc box wxPython is working but only when it is statically
 515 linked with the Python interpreter.  When built as a dyamically loaded
 516 extension module, things start acting weirdly and it soon seg-faults.
 517 And on Linux both the statically linked and the dynamically linked
 518 version segfault shortly after starting up.
 519
 520 2. Added Toolbar, StatusBar and SplitterWindow classes.
 521
 522 3. Varioius bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
 523
 524 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 525
 526
 527
 528 Build Instructions
 529 ------------------
 530 I used SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to create the source code for the
 531 extension module.  This enabled me to only have to deal with a small
 532 amount of code and only have to bother with the exceptional issues.
 533 SWIG takes care of the rest and generates all the repetative code for
 534 me.  You don't need SWIG to build the extension module as all the
 535 generated C++ code is included under the src directory.
 536
 537 I added a few minor features to SWIG to control some of the code
 538 generation.  If you want to play around with this you will need to get
 539 a recent version of SWIG from their CVS or from a daily build.  See
 540 http://www.swig.org/ for details.
 541
 542 wxPython is organized as a Python package.  This means that the
 543 directory containing the results of the build process should be a
 544 subdirectory of a directory on the PYTHONPATH.  (And preferably should
 545 be named wxPython.)  You can control where the build process will dump
 546 wxPython by setting the TARGETDIR variable for the build utility, (see
 547 below.)
 548
 549
 550 1. Build wxWindows as described in its BuildCVS.txt file.  For *nix
 551    systems I run configure with these flags:
 552
 553                 --with-gtk
 554                 --with-libjpeg
 555                 --without-odbc
 556                 --enable-unicode=no
 557                 --enable-threads=yes
 558                 --enable-socket=yes
 559                 --enable-static=no
 560                 --enable-shared=yes
 561                 --disable-std_iostreams
 562
 563    You can use whatever flags you want, but I know these work.
 564
 565    For Win32 systems I use Visual C++ 6.0, but 5.0 should work.  The
 566    build utility currently does not support any other win32 compilers.
 567
 568 2. At this point you may want to make an alias or symlink, script,
 569    batch file, whatever on the PATH that invokes
 570    $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/distrib/build.py to help simplify matters
 571    somewhat.  For example, on my win32 system I have a file named
 572    build.bat in a directory on the PATH that contains:
 573
 574    python $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/distrib/build.py %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
 575
 576
 577 3. Change into the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/src directory.
 578
 579 4. Type "build -b" to build wxPython and "build -i" to install it.
 580
 581    The build.py script actually generates a Makefile based on what it
 582    finds on your system and information found in the build.cfg file.
 583    If you have troubles building or you want it built or installed in
 584    a different way, take a look at the docstring in build.py.  You may
 585    be able to override configuration options in a file named
 586    build.local.
 587
 588 5. To build and install the add-on modules, change to the appropriate
 589    directory under $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/modules and run the build
 590    utility again.
 591
 592 6. Change to the $(WXWIN)/utils/wxPython/demo directory.
 593
 594 7. Try executing the demo program.  For example:
 595
 596     python demo.py
 597
 598 To run it without requiring a console on win32, you can use the
 599 pythonw.exe version of Python either from the command line or from a
 600 shortcut.
 601
 602
 603
 604 ----------------
 605 Robin Dunn
 606 robin@alldunn.com
 607
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