Re: [Boa Constr] [wxPython-users] Question on opinions...

[Chris S. <csp...@ci...>]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:27:16 +0100, "Werner F. Bruhin"
<wer...@fr...> wrote:
>Chris,
>> IS Riaan doing anything?  Currently?
>The short answer is yes and I don't have details nor do I think it would 
>be up to me to reveal them here.

Sorry, the thrust of my question is unclear.  Is he doing anything
WITH BOA currently?  I'm quite willing to believe that other work
matters are keeping him away.

>> RE plug-ins:  Until you mentioned it, I didn't even know Boa HAD the
>> ability to do plug-ins.  I subsequently looked for information on them
>> and found exactly one page on the internet...in German...that
>> describes how they are used....
>> http://www.xing.com/net/python-programmierung/details-programmschnipsel-22580/boa-constructor-plugins-1454660/
>>
>> The documentation INSIDE Boa is nonexistent on the topic of how to do
>> custom controls in the context of a plug-in.
>There is a very short mention in "Extending Boa Constructor" within the 
>Boa help but I don't recall that there is any tutorial how to do things.
>
>Looking at some of the existing plug-in files can be helpful but it 
>would definitely be good to have some tutorial on it and how to add 
>widgets to the Companions.

I never looked at it.  I never saw it's power.  Why?  Because most
plug-ins are disabled on a base BOA install.  Any extensions that we
do for wxPython 2.9 controls should be active on the first startup
(and then it's up to the user to disable them if s/he's still working
with older wxPython versions).

But the more I looked into plug-ins, the more I appreciate how much
can be done with them to keep BOA current without mucking about in the
code base.  In fact...I'm such a believer that I might just download a
clean install from CVS and convert all of my monkey-patches to
plug-ins.

I've been using Boa for near 10 years now...I have NO idea how I
missed this.

>Done as plug-in's or within the core code they should both end up in a 
>formal release but in the short time the plug-in way makes it very easy 
>to share.

Agreed.

>If I understand Phoenix correctly it should be backwards compatible, 
>i.e. I think if Boa fully supports 2.9 I would think it will also 
>support Phoenix.

I don't know.  On one hand I'm hearing that it'll be very backwards
compatible.  Then I see the debates about going unicode-only.  Makes
me twitchy (not the Unicode, since all my code is in Unicode) when
developers change the build process.  It encourages them to say "well,
while we're changing THIS...let's just go over here and change these
other things..."

I still wake up in cold sweat nightmares about the Python 3.x
series...

>Another story will be Python 3.x support - but lets make small steps 
>towards a new release of Boa with at least acceptable 2.9 support.

Agreed.

>
>Werner

Chris.