wxPython 2.5 Migration Guide

wxPython 2.6 Migration Guide

This document will help explain some of the major changes in wxPython -2.5 since the 2.4 series and let you know what you need to do to adapt +2.6 since the 2.4 series and let you know what you need to do to adapt your programs to those changes. Be sure to also check in the CHANGES file like usual to see info about the not so major changes and other things that have been added to wxPython.

@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ SetClippingRect(self, rect)

wxPython's setup.py script now expects to use existing libraries for the contribs (gizmos, stc, xrc, etc.) rather than building local copies of them. If you build your own copies of wxPython please be -aware that you now need to also build the ogl, stc, xrc, and gizmos +aware that you now need to also build the stc, xrc, animate and gizmos libraries in addition to the main wx lib.

The wxPython.h and other header files are now in .../wxPython/include/wx/wxPython instead of in wxPython/src. You @@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ path should already be set properly.

If you are also using SWIG for your extension then you'll need to adapt how the wxPython .i files are imported into your .i files. See the wxPython sources for examples. Your modules will need to at least -%import core.i, and possibly others if you need the definition of +%import core.i, and possibly others if you need the definition of other classes. Since you will need them to build your modules using SWIG, the main wxPython .i files are also installed with the wxPython headers in an i_files sibdirectory. It should be enough to pass a @@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ headers in an i_files sibdirectory. It should be enough to pass a wx/build/config.py. This module will be installed as part of wxPython so 3rd party modules that wish to use the same setup/configuration code can do so simply by importing this module from their own setup.py -scripts using import wx.build.config.

+scripts using import wx.build.config.

You no longer need to call wxClassInfo::CleanUpClasses() and wxClassInfo::InitializeClasses() in your extensions or when embedding wxPython.

@@ -358,9 +358,9 @@ class MyDialog(wx.Dialog):

Sizers

The hack allowing the old "option" keyword parameter has been removed. -If you use keyword args with w.xSizer Add, Insert, or Prepend methods -then you will need to use the proportion name instead of -option. (The proportion keyword was also allowed in 2.4.2.4.)

+If you use keyword args with wx.Sizer Add, Insert, or Prepend methods +then you will need to use the proportion name instead of +option. (The proportion keyword was also allowed in 2.4.2.4.)

When adding a spacer to a sizer you now need to use a wx.Size or a 2-integer sequence instead of separate width and height parameters. This was optionally allowed in 2.4, but now it is required. This @@ -376,8 +376,11 @@ be used from XRC.

You should not use AddWindow, AddSizer, AddSpacer (and similar for Insert, Prepend, and etc.) methods any longer. Just use Add and the wrappers will figure out what to do. [Changed in 2.5.2.x] -AddWindow, AddSize, AddSpacer and etc. will now issue a -DeprecationWarning.

+AddWindow, AddSizer, AddSpacer and etc. will now issue a +DeprecationWarning. [Changed in 2.5.4.x] These methods have now +been undeprecated at the request of Riaan Booysen, the Boa Constructor +team lead. They are now just simple compatibility aliases for Add, +and etc.

[Changed in 2.5.2.x] The Sizers have had some fundamental internal changes in the 2.5.2.x release intended to make them do more of the "Right Thing" but also be as backwards compatible as possible. @@ -388,41 +391,41 @@ First a bit about how things used to work:

to be its minimal size, and that size would always be used by default when calculating layout size and positions, and the sizer itself would keep track of that minimal size. -

If the window item was added with the wx.ADJUST_MINSIZE -flag then when layout was calculated the item's GetBestSize +

If the window item was added with the wx.ADJUST_MINSIZE +flag then when layout was calculated the item's GetBestSize would be used to reset the minimal size that the sizer used.

The main thrust of the new Sizer changes was to make behaviour like -wx.ADJUST_MINSIZE be the default, and also to push the tracking of +

The main thrust of the new Sizer changes was to make behavior like +wx.ADJUST_MINSIZE be the default, and also to push the tracking of the minimal size to the window itself (since it knows its own needs) instead of having the sizer take care of it. Consequently these changes were made:

-
The wx.FIXED_MINSIZE flag was added to allow for the old -behaviour. When this flag is used the size a window has when +
The wx.FIXED_MINSIZE flag was added to allow for the old +behavior. When this flag is used the size a window has when added to the sizer will be treated as its minimal size and it will not be readjusted on each layout.
-
The min size stored in wx.Window and settable with -SetSizeHints or SetMinSize will by default be used by +
The min size stored in wx.Window and settable with +SetSizeHints or SetMinSize will by default be used by the sizer (if it was set) as the minimal size of the sizer item. If the min size was not set (or was only partially set) then the window's best size is fetched and it is used instead of (or -blended with) the min size. wx.Window.GetBestFittingSize +blended with) the min size. wx.Window.GetBestFittingSize was added to facilitate getting the size to be used by the sizers.

The best size of a window is cached so it doesn't need to -recaculated on every layout. wx.Window.InvalidateBestSize +recaculated on every layout. wx.Window.InvalidateBestSize was added and should be called (usually just internally in control methods) whenever something is done that would make the best size change.

All wxControls were changed to set the minsize to what is passed to the constructor or Create method, and also to set the real size of the control to the blending of the min size and best -size. wx.Window.SetBestFittingSize was added to help with +size. wx.Window.SetBestFittingSize was added to help with this, although most controls don't need to call it directly -because it is called indirectly via the SetInitialSize +because it is called indirectly via the SetInitialSize called in the base classes.

@@ -438,34 +441,34 @@ but now the sizer will use the default size as the minimum rather than the size set later. It is an easy fix though, just move the specification of the size to the constructor (assuming that SomeWidget will set its minsize there like the rest of the controls do) or call -SetMinSize instead of SetSize.

+SetMinSize instead of SetSize.

In order to fit well with this new scheme of things, all wxControls or custom controls should do the following things. (Depending on how they are used you may also want to do the same thing for non-control custom windows.)

-
Either override or inherit a meaningful DoGetBestSize method +
Either override or inherit a meaningful DoGetBestSize method that calculates whatever size is "best" for the control. Once that size is calculated then there should normally be a call to -CacheBestSize to save it for later use, unless for some +CacheBestSize to save it for later use, unless for some reason you want the best size to be recalculated on every layout.
-
Note: In order to successfully override DoGetBestSize in -Python the class needs to be derived from wx.PyWindow, -wx.PyControl, or etc. If your class instead derives from +
Note: In order to successfully override DoGetBestSize in +Python the class needs to be derived from wx.PyWindow, +wx.PyControl, or etc. If your class instead derives from one of the standard wx classes then just be sure that the min size gets explicitly set to what would have been the best size and things should work properly in almost all situations.

Any method that changes the attributes of the control such that -the best size will change should call InvalidateBestSize so +the best size will change should call InvalidateBestSize so it will be recalculated the next time it is needed.

The control's constructor and/or Create method should ensure that the minsize is set to the size passed in, and that the control is sized to a blending of the min size and best size. -This can be done by calling SetBestFittingSize.
+This can be done by calling SetBestFittingSize.

@@ -603,9 +606,7 @@ mask and the rest would be made fully opaque.

channel and will now only create a mask when all the pixels in the image are either fully transparent or fully opaque. In addition, the wx.DC.DrawBitmap and wx.DC.Blit methods are able to correctly blend -the pixels in the image with partially transparent alpha values. -(Currently only on MSW and Mac, if anybody knows how to do it for GTK -then please submit a patch!)

+the pixels in the image with partially transparent alpha values.

If you are using a PNG with an alpha channel but you need to have a wx.Mask like you automatically got in 2.4 then you can do one of the following:

@@ -621,14 +622,17 @@ fully transparent.

OGL is dead! LONG LIVE OGL!

[Changed in 2.5.2.x]

The wx.ogl module has been deprecated in favor of the new Python port -of the OGL library located at wx.lib.ogl contributed by Pierre Hjälm. -This will hopefully greatly extend the life of OGL within wxPython by -making it more easily maintainable and less prone to getting rusty as -there seems to be less and less interest in maintaining the C++ -version.

The wx.ogl module was deprecated in version 2.5.2 in favor of the new +Python port of the OGL library located at wx.lib.ogl contributed by +Pierre Hjälm. Starting in version 2.5.5 the old ogl is no longer +being built in the distributed binaries, however the source code is +still in the source tree so people can built it themselves if desired.

The reason this changes was done was to greatly extend the life of OGL +within wxPython by making it more easily maintainable and less prone +to getting rusty as there seems to be less and less interest in +maintaining the C++ version.

There are only a few known compatibility issues at this time. First -is the location of OGL. The deprecated version is located in the +is the location of OGL. The old version was located in the wx.ogl module, and the new version is in the wx.lib.ogl package. So this just means that to start using the new version you need to adjust your imports. So if your code currently has something like this:

@@ -673,7 +677,7 @@ later into the main namespace via Python code.

the "internal" module names have changed, but you shouldn't have been using them anyway so it shouldn't bother you. ;-) In case you were erroneously using them in 2.4, here are the internal extension modules -no longer exist:

+that no longer exist:

clip_dnd
@@ -714,8 +718,93 @@ the objects in these modules only via the wx or wxPython.wx packages:

The help module no longer exists and the classes therein are now part of the core module imported with wxPython.wx or the wx package.

Other Stuff

wx.TaskBarIcon

[Changed in 2.5.3.x]

wx.TaskbarIcon now works on all three platforms, although for wxGTK it +depends on support from the Window Manager. On OS X the icon replaces +the application's icon on the dock and when you right click on it the +app's default popup menu is merged with the wx.TaskBarIcon's menu. +Because of how it is implemented on the Mac using the Dock most of the +TaskBarIcon events will _not_ be emitted on that platform, but since +98% of the time you simply want to display an icon and have a popup +menu it shouldn't be much of a problem. You can still use the other +events on the other platforms, you'll just want to be sure that you +can do everything you want via the menu too.

Since popping up a menu is the most common thing to do with a +TaskBarIcon the class has some new built in functionality to +facilitate that. To use the TaskBarIcon in this new way, simply +derive a new class from TaskBarIcon and implement a CreatePopupMenu +method that creates and returns the menu. That's all there is to it, +besides binding event handlers for the menu items of course. Take a +look at the DemoTaskBarIcon class in the demo/Main.py module for an +example.

NOTE: Unfortunately due to being able to support virtualizing +CreatePopupMenu the C++ TaskBarIcon instance now holds a reference to +the Python instance, and so you will need to explicitly Destroy() your +TaskBarIcon instance when you are done with it. (Like you do with +wx.Dialogs.) If you don't destroy it then wxWidgets will assume that +you want the app to keep running with just the icon in the task bar +and the MainLoop will not exit.

Version Number Change

[Changed in 2.5.3.x]

Starting with 2.5.3.0 the Unicode versions of wxPython will no longer +have a 'u' appended to the fourth component of the version number. +Please check for the presence of "unicode" in the wx.PlatformInfo +tuple instead. (This tuple of strings has been available since the +first 2.5 version.) For example:

+if "unicode" in wx.PlatformInfo:
+    # do whatever
+    ...
+

Multi-Version Installs

[Changed in 2.5.3.x]

Starting with 2.5.3.0 the wx and wxPython package directories will be +installed in a subdirectory of the site-packages directory, instead of +directly in site-packages. This is done to help facilitate having +multiple versions of wxPython installed side-by-side. Why would you +want to do this? One possible scenario is you have an app that +requires wxPython 2.4 but you want to use the newest 2.5 to do your +own development with. Or perhaps you want to be able to test your app +with several different versions of wxPython to ensure compatibility. +Before everyone panics, rest asured that if you only install one +version of wxPython then you should notice no difference in how things +work.

In addition to installing wxPython into a "versioned" subdirectory of +site-packages, a file named wx.pth is optionally installed that will +contain the name of the versioned subdirectory. This will cause that +subdirectory to be automatically added to the sys.path and so doing an +"import wx" will find the package in the subdirectory like it would +have if it was still located directly in site-packages. I say +"optionally" above because that is how you can control which install +of wxPython is the default one. Which ever version installs the +wx.pth file will be the one that is imported with a plain "import wx" +statement. Of course you can always manipulate that by editing the +wx.pth file, or by setting PYTHONPATH in the environment, or by the +method described in the next paragraph.

Finally, a new module named wxversion.py is installed to the +site-packages directory. It can be used to manipulate the sys.path at +runtime so your applications can select which version of wxPython they +would like to to have imported. You use it like this:

+import wxversion
+wxversion.select("2.4")
+import wx
+

Then even though a 2.5 version of wxPython may be the default the +application that does the above the first time that wx is imported +will actually get a 2.4 version. NOTE: There isn't actually a 2.4 +version of wxPython that supports this, but there will be.

Please see this wiki page for more details, HowTo's and FAQ's: +http://wiki.wxpython.org/index.cgi/MultiVersionInstalls

Miscellaneous Stuff

wxPyDefaultPosition and wxPyDefaultSize are gone. Use the wxDefaultPosition and wxDefaultSize objects instead.

Similarly, the wxSystemSettings backwards compatibiility aliases for @@ -741,15 +830,6 @@ wxPyTypeCast at all.

there are compatibility aliases for much of the above items.

The wxWave class has been renamed to wxSound, and now has a slightly different API.

wx.TaskbarIcon works on wxGTK-based platforms (for some window -managers,) however you have to manage it a little bit more than you -did before. Basically, the app will treat it like a top-level frame -in that if the wx.TaskBarIcon still exists when all the frames are -closed then the app will still not exit. You need to ensure that the -wx.TaskBarIcon is destroyed when your last Frame is closed. For -wxPython apps it is usually enough if your main frame object holds the -only reference to the wx.TaskBarIcon, then when the frame is closed -Python reference counting takes care of the rest.

Before Python 2.3 it was possible to pass a floating point object as a parameter to a function that expected an integer, and the PyArg_ParseTuple family of functions would automatically convert to @@ -777,6 +857,22 @@ for changes in capabilities, usage, etc.

and will raise a DeprecationWarning if used. The main wx.Mask constructor has been modified to be compatible with wx.MaskColour so you should use it instead.

[Changed in 2.5.2.x] In wx.TextCtrls that have the +wx.TE_PROCESS_TAB style the TAB key will be treated like an ordinary +character and will not cause any tab traversal navigation at all. If +you use this style but would still like to have the normal tab +traversal take place then you should send your own +wx.NavigationKeyEvent from the wx.EVT_KEY_DOWN handler. There is a +new Navigate method in the wx.Window class to help send the event and +it is used something like this:

+flags = wx.NavigationKeyEvent.IsForward
+if event.ShiftDown():
+    flags = wx.NavigationKeyEvent.IsBackward
+if event.ControlDown():
+    flags |= wx.NavigationKeyEvent.WinChange
+self.Navigate(flags)
+