Re: [Pyobjc-dev] step by step tutorial - second edition

[Ronald O. <ous...@ci...>]

On Wednesday, Apr 2, 2003, at 17:20 Europe/Amsterdam, Jack Jansen wrote:

> I've converted my step-by-step tutorial to Restructured Text, fixed a  
> couple of things people reported and made the directory and file  
> structure a bit more palatable. If people could have a look and  
> comment on it (especially on the bits with "XXX editorial note" or  
> "XXX implementation note") that would be helpful. I've included the  
> generated HTML so you don't have to read the ReST source (or install  
> the docutils) to read it.

Even though I do most of my hacking in Python 2.3 at the moment (PyObjC  
and otherwise), I think the tutorial should mention Apple's Python 2.2  
with Python 2.3 mentioned in footnotes. I definitely don't want peoply  
to get the impression that the must install a completely new python  
interpreter to use PyObjC (*).

I'd also include a link to the Objective-C tutorial you're mirroring  
(http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Cocoa/ObjCTutorial/ 
index.html).

Step 4 can also be done as 'nibclassbuilder MainMenu.nib >  
CurrentConverter.py'. <offtopic>This is installed into /usr/bin when  
your using Apple's python, should fix this for our installer, with a  
Python 2.3 framework install it is installed somewhere inside the  
framework</offtopic>

Step 5:
- AppKit.NibClassBuilder has recently moved to  
'PyObjCTools.NibClassBuilder' (the former will also work in 0.9 but  
will emit a warning).
- Use 'PyObjCTools.AppHelper.runEventloop()' instead of your main  
function (that should also address your concern about the amount of  
boilerplate code).

Step 8:
- The translation of method names is described in `An introduction to  
PyObjC` (Doc/intro.txt), there is no real reference guide at the moment.
- The same document describes how to tell about argument types, but  
again there is no really detailed documentation about that.

Section 'Creating an applet for local use'
- This can be done using a buildapp.py script (just like the TableModel  
example), or not using '--link' in the invocation of bundlebuilder.py.  
If you include all sources as resources you end up with an applet that  
you can relocate to ~/Applications.

Section 'Creating a fullblown distributable applications'
- This is slightly harder at the moment. If your using Apple's python  
(and therefore targeting OSX 10.2) you just have to copy  
$PYLIB/site-packages/PyObjC/* and all other site-packages your using  
into build/CurrencyConverter.app/Resources.
- If your using a non-Apple python you're on your own. Bundlebuilder.py  
seems to have support for standalone applications, but I haven't used  
this yet.

>
> <pyobjc-currencyconverter-stepbystep.tgz>
>
> Shall I check this in? Where? Under what name?

Please do, in a subdirectory of either Doc/Tutorials or  
Examples/Tutorials. The former is probably better, this is mostly about  
documentation.

Many thanks for your work on this tutorial!

Ronald

> --
> Jack Jansen, <Jac...@cw...>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
> If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma  
> Goldman
>
(*) Not that installing Python 2.3 would hurt, Apple's version of  
Python 2.2 is ancient and Python 2.3 is way better than Python 2.2 even  
if you don't use the Mac-specific modules.