Re: [Pythoncard-users] XRC file support in PythonCard

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

Winston Wolff wrote:

> Is anybody thinking about integrating XRC files in PythonCard?
>
> Here are my reasons why it would be a good idea:
>     - Could use a number of GUI builders such as wxGlade.
>     - PythonCard's resourceEditor has problems including:
>         - on Mac OS X grow handles don't appear
>         - on Mac OS X sizes get "stuck" and I can't grow widgets

As far as I know, these two have been fixed in the latest version 
(layoutEditor in 0.8.2, only in cvs). If you aren't using that, I'd 
recommend an update (you can get it using anonymous cvs access - see 
instructions under "Development" on the left menu of www.pythoncard.org

And if you're already using the latest version and still seeing these 
problems, I'd appreciate a full bug report so I can fix them :-)

>         - Layouts/Sizers are not supported.
>
I agree that's a problem. Partly it's because there's something of a 
conflict between the desirability of using sizers (on the one hand) and 
the desire to keep it simple and quick to make a basic app in PythonCard 
(I've yet to see a sizer-based layout editor that I'd describe as simple 
or quick).

> I'm thinking about a resource loader in PythonCard that would load  an 
> .XRC file (XML file written out by wxGlade or XRCed) and then do  the 
> regular PythonCard magic for binding events to widgets.
>
I think the tricky part will be deciding what to do when the XRC file 
contains controls, options or values that PythonCard doesn't support.

> The great thing about PythonCard is how it links up widgets and  
> handlers automatically, saving great amounts of time and simplifying  
> your code.  Probably when it was first written, wxPython GUI editors  
> were not very good, or didn't exist.  But now they are better than  
> PythonCard's resourceEditor.  Let's leverage other's work on GUI  
> editors, and take the good part from PythonCard.
>

> Would anybody use this?  Would I be allowed to add it to the  
> sourceforge repository?  Any other technical issues?

I'd give it a try (of course), but whether or not I'd use it is a much 
harder question. That would depend on the features and "style" of the 
GUI editors that can create xrc files. The issue I have with all the 
sizer-based GUI editors I've seen is that they work best when you 
already have a good idea of what your finished UI is going to look like 
(including how you want the controls split into sizers), whereas I tend 
to build the UI incrementally, adding controls, moving them around, etc. 
as the project evolves. Then (at some point) it feels settled enough 
that I could reasonably design a sizer tree and start allocating 
controls to branches of it. (currently of course I need to do that in 
code, which feels "wrong" but not too bad because it rarely changes much 
after that).

It's been a while since I looked at the range of editors available, so 
if there is one that handles sizer-tree reconfiguration well I'd be very 
happy to hear about it.


Assuming it was completely "parallel" to existing stuff, I can't see a 
reason why it couldn't be added to the repository.

I think the main technical issue will be the mis-match between the set 
of controls presented by the editor(s) and what can actually be handled 
by PythonCard (but that's an off-the-cuff response - I'll give it some 
thought (and take a closer look at the editors and xrc itself and get 
back to you if I see anything else looming ....)

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



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