Re: [Pythoncard-users] layout and font problems on Windows

[Alex T. <al...@tw...>]

Ronny De Winter wrote:

> This problem was reported on this mailing list 17-19 dec 2005. Since 
> no solution was found i've put the info in a bug record.
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1415287&group_id=19015&atid=119015 
>
>
Thanks for recording it (and sorry I didn't get anywhere with it in 
December - busy time of year and it got buried back then).

> Layout/font problems with resource editor/samples
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> I have problems with some of the PythonCard samples, ie. in the 
> mp3player the buttons almost completely dissappear at the bottom of 
> the window. Another example is minimalList which ads an horizontal 
> scrollbar.
>
> This seems to be a PythonCard problem on my Windows configuration,
> my setup: WinXP, python 2.4.2, wxPython 2.6.1.0, pythoncard 0.8.1
>
> some examples:
>
> http://www.5consulting.com/img/tmp/screen1.jpg
> resourceEditor Property Editor:
> - incomplete button at the right bottom
>
I think we'll need a bit more info from you, on system settings.

When I look at this same window, on a very similar set-up (WinXP, python 
2.4.1, wxPython 2.6.1, pythoncard cvs latest), what I get is

the *overall* window size is the same
the window title bar is smaller
the status bar is smaller
       (therefore the "usable" part of the window is larger vertically)
the font used in the list fields (and presumably in the button also) are 
smaller

I'm guessing the difference is due to different XP "themes" (is that 
what they're called?) and/or different default system fonts. Both areas 
that I know nothing about - but if you happen to know anything about 
them, could you send the relevant info please ?

If you can send that info, I hope to be able to reproduce it here - and 
so confirm that it is a system setting / font issue. That won't mean 
that we'll be able to fix it any time soon, I'm afraid.

The resourceEditor (and indeed most of the samples) do not use sizers, 
and therefore are not able to adapt themselves for differing font 
issues. They also do not specify a font to use, allowing it to default 
to the system font.

Both of these impose limitations between systems - these have largely 
been worked around by adding a certain amount of "slack" in the sizing 
of windows and in the positioning of components, enough for MacOS and 
common Linux variants to work OK.

The long-term fix, I believe, will have to involve the use of sizers. We 
have struggled to find a way to use sizers compatible with the 
simplicity of PythonCard (and will probably continue to struggle for a 
while longer).

If I were you, what I'd do is:

1. make any small work-arounds to make the Pythoncard tools usable on 
your system
2. consider developing any apps  as sizer-based, to ensure they do look 
OK on your system as well as others

For 1, I'd edit (with a text editor) 
{pythoncard}/tools/resourceEditor/modules/proprertyEditor.rsrc.py, and 
change

>           'title':'resourceEditor Property Editor',
>           'size':(405, 270),

to make the size bigger (maybe 450,290)

Note that cvs latest of Pythoncard does contain a simple Sizer layout, 
which can help, though only with fairly simple layouts - e.g. most 
though not all of the samples, and all of the PythonCard tools except 
findfiles (which already uses sizers).
BUT the one thing it does not do is resize the entire window, so it 
wouldn't solve the problem with the resourceEditor. However, you may 
find it useful for your own apps.


-- 
Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net



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