Re: [Boa Constr] Newbie questions

[Riaan B. <riaan@e.co.za>]

Hi Ryurick,

"Ryurick M. Hristev" wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I was thinking it is time to learn python so I thought an IDE would be ideal
> for my first baby steps :-D. However I have some problems/questions:
> 
> a. debugger. From the home page apparently the debugger is not fully usable.
>    I've tried it and it hangs doing nothing. If I do a Ctrl-C then I get
>    "can't read from file descriptor 19 (error 4: Interrupted system call)".
>    Is it possible to use an external debugger like DDD ?

The homepage refers to Boa 0.1.0. The CVS version of Boa (0.1.3, which 
you have) is fully usable and stable, but unfortunately a change in 
wxWindows/wxPython 2.3.3 breaks async process management under Linux 
(I cannot work around it).

The best advice I have for now is to revert to wxPython 2.3.2.

External debuggers are not supported.

> 
> b. what is the bcrtl package ? is it an absolute requirement ? Any pointers
>    appreciated (I couldn't find anything).

bcrtl == Boa Constructor Run Time Library

It's absolutely optional ;)

Currently it adds a few extra controls as examples of how to extend Boa.

What problems are you having with the bcrtl?

> 
> c. boa always seems to exit with a segfault. I'll take it that this is a wxWindows
>    problem ? (using wxPythonGTK-py2.2-2.3.3.1)

Yes, this is also a new issue introduced by 2.3.3. 
Robin has helped me track it down, and I will try to find a workaround.

Please note that the crash happens *after* all Python code has run,
so there is no chance of loosing any data, it's just a nuisance.

> And finally: I am willing to write a spec file for the rpm package management
> system (Linux: RedHat, etc.). However there is a catch: It's not clear to me
> where is should go, if somebody would be willing to tell me how they install
> boa system-wide "by hand" then I could translate this in the spec file.

Boa can go anywhere as it is an application, not a library.

I decided before the last release that wxPython/tools/boa is a 
nice default location.

Luckily Python has distutils which can build rpms for you.
The Boa 0.1.0 release was built with distutils, but unfortunately
I could not get the bdist_rpm option to work (it should tho!).

> 
> TIA for any answers.
> 
> Cheers,
> --
> Ryurick M. Hristev mailto:ryu...@ca...
> Computer Systems Manager
> University of Canterbury, Physics & Astronomy Dept., New Zealand

Cheers,
Riaan.