[Pythoncard-users] initial getting started material

[Kevin A. <al...@se...>]

This post to edu-sig seems like a good start. Comment at will.

ka

-----Original Message-----
From: edu...@py... [mailto:edu...@py...]On
Behalf Of Kevin Altis
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 11:50 AM
To: ed...@py...
Subject: RE: [Edu-sig] would you use PythonCard?


> From: Jason Cunliffe
>
> Your post prompted me to check out PythonCard.
> Downloaded it to Win89se syetem with Python 2.1 installed.

You'll also need wxPython for Python 2.1 http://www.wxpython.org/
The pre-built binaries are at:
http://www.wxpython.org/download.php#binaries

> Took a summer break from computers recently, so I'm probably
> being very dumb
> but cannot find any 'getting started' instructions anywhere.

There aren't any docs other than what is in the docs directory, I'm working
on them, so I'll use this opportunity to create some 'content' for the first
draft Getting Started document.

> How do I start PythonCard?
> Do / Can / Should I run it from PythonWin, IDLE or Pycrust?
> What are the first 10 things to do to get it up and running?

Assuming Python 2.1 and wxPython are installed and running correctly, you
need to move the PyCrust and PythonCardPrototype package directories to your
python21 directory. If you want, you can move the 'samples' directory to a
more convenient place.

The only thing you run are the standalone samples or a sample you write
yourself. All you have to do is double-click one of the .py files like
'samples\minimal\minimal.py'. You can also run the files from the
command-line, and the command-line is probably preferred if you want to
invoke one of the debug windows (see below) with the program. The one thing
you should not do is run a sample from within PythonWin or IDLE since
neither of those IDEs launches an app in a separate process, so you'll run
into GUI contention issues. You can launch from an IDE like Komodo. What I
typically do is edit in PythonWin and keep a shell window (DOS prompt) open
to run the program once I make an edit change; alternatively keep a shortcut
to the program or an Explorer window open to the directory the program is in
so you can double-click it. Sometime in the future, there will be a
PythonCard environment that allows you to edit scripts and run.

The files ending in '.rsrc.py' are the resource files and are not runnable
themselves. There is a description of each sample in samples.txt of the docs
directory. The following files are standalone samples (directory structure
shown):

samples
  addresses
    addresses.py

  conversions
    conversions.py

  dbBrowser
    dbBrowser.py
    This sample requires mySQL to be installed and running.

  dialogs
    test_dialogs.py

  findfiles
    findfiles.py

  minimal
    minimal.py
    You should copy the minimal folder when you're ready to start
    your own PythonCard program. See the tutorial.txt file in the
    docs directory for more information.

  proof
    proof.py

  resourceEditor
    resourceEditor.py
    This is the GUI editor for resource files. Release 0.4.3 doesn't
    support saving files, but you can open any .rsrc.py file, add
    widgets, delete, move and resize, and duplicate widgets. The
    Property Editor window is used to change attributes of each widget
    such as the backgroundColor.

  searchexplorer
    searchexplorer.py

  sounds
    test_sounds.py

  SourceForgeTracker
    SourceForgeTracker.py

  textIndexer
    textIndexer.py
    This sample requires either Zope or standalone ZODB to
    be installed.

  tictactoe
    tic.py

  turtle
    test_turtle.py

  widgets
    test_widgets.py

  worldclock
    worldclock.py


You can change the .py extension to .pyw on any of the samples if you want
to get rid of the console window that pops up when you run the program.

Command-line options
Valid command-line options are: -m (Message Watcher), -p (Property
Editor), -s (Shell) and in cvs -n (Namespace Viewer); the Namespace Viewer
is in cvs, but not in a release version yet. Invoking any of those options
will actually give you all of them and then you can hide/show any of the
windows via the Debug menu.

You can set the default position and size of each window and whether it
appears by default by copying the 'pythoncard.config.py' file in the
PythonCardPrototype directory and renaming the copy to
'pythoncard.user.config.py' This is what mine looks like:

{  'gui':'wxPython',
   'logfile':'pythoncard.log',
   'showMessageWatcher':0,
   'messageWatcherPosition':(900, 0),
   'messageWatcherSize':(200, 300),
   'messageWatcherVisible':1,
   'showPropertyEditor':0,
   'propertyEditorPosition':(750, 350),
   'propertyEditorSize':(360, 240),
   'propertyEditorVisible':1,
   'showShell':0,
   'shellPosition':(50, 600),
   'shellSize':(700, 230),
   'shellVisible':1,
   'showNamespace':0,
   'namespacePosition':(0, 0),
   'namespaceSize':(800, 300),
   'namespaceVisible':1,
   'defaultStackPosition':(5, 5),
   'enableLogging':0
}

I don't have any of the windows enabled by default since I use several of
the samples all day long (worldclock, searchexplorer, and
SourceForgeTracker) and don't want a debug menu or debug windows for them. I
run a sample from the shell when I want debug windows.

> anyone I think. What level of programming experience do you think
> PythonCard
> is good for?

If someone is up for Python, I don't think PythonCard takes much more
effort, less if you think of the pain of doing command-line input/output. It
is mostly a matter of copy and paste and following some coding conventions,
which we're in the process of documenting. You don't have to worry about
event tables, id bindings, window handles, pack, etc. At this point, the
widget set is much more limited than if you programmed wxPython directly,
but we're closing the gap each day.

> Myself I love Pthon and much more besides, but still find it very
> frustrating installing and running Python packages. Anything you can do to
> enhance this aspect of PythonCard is for the good I am sure. Meanwhile I
> signed up to the PythonCard mailing list and will do some more homework,
> browse the archives etc.

We've debated back and forth on the installation issue. On one hand, we
should support dist-utils, but we also need to make it so that you just
double-click and run a normal installer since requiring the user to type
'setup install' defeats part of the purpose. Since we're at the prototype
stage, that's a bit much for releases that happen every few days. For now,
you just drop the directories into your python21 directory and you're set.

> Thanks in advance any help
> - Jason

Thanks a lot, keep the questions coming. I'm going to work on the Getting
Started and post to the pythoncard-users mailing list later today.

ka


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