pythoncard-users — PythonCard Users and Developers

[Pythoncard-users] files in cvs now require wxPython 2.3.1 or later

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

TextArea in cvs now uses wxTE_RICH. widgets.py has been updated along with
the samples that were previously counting newlines under Windows.

That means the next release will require wxPython 2.3.1. I will probably go
ahead and add an explicit check for the wxPython version during the
framework initialization and do a sys.exit() if wxPython 2.3.1 or later
isn't installed.

I don't expect to do a release until next week.

ka

[Pythoncard-users] updated sample screen shots

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

Andy did some screen shot work yesterday to cover more of the samples and
I've just updated the HTML. I added another screen shot page and also
included some of the older Linux shots that I overlooked before.

http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/samples.html

http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/samples2.html

http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/samples3.html

Let me know if you find any problems or have suggestions for making these
pages look better. The screen shots are probably one of the first things
people look at that aren't already familiar with PythonCard, so our
"marketing material" needs to help draw in new users and developers.

ka

[Pythoncard-users] addresses sample and generalized document model

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

Rather than creating a separate sample to experiment with a more generalized
set of document classes for the framework, I decided to just work with the
existing addresses sample initially. Since addresses is also an example of
converting the layout and data from a HyperCard stack to PythonCard I
renamed the existing addresses sample to keep it around.

cvs comment:
renamed old addresses and its resource file to addresses052.py and
addresses052.rsrc.py since they are from prototype release 0.5.2
added a new addresses.py so I can work on a document model for addresses
that might be generalized for the whole framework later

The initial conversion just moves the document handling into a separate
class, much like the textIndexer uses, but instead of ZODB, I'm just using
the same plain text file format for the records made up of a list of
dictionaries. The actual file type used for storage is one of the issues
that needs to be addressed for the Document class hieararchy.

I also added Find and two missing edit menu items.

I would like to make the addresses sample more useful, so I plan to clean up
the layout and expand the scope of what it can do, so feel free to make
suggestions on the feature set or contribute code.

ka

[Pythoncard-users] Re: Dave Winer on HyperCard + Web + MORE

[Francois G. <fgr...@al...>]

>At 12:22 -0800 22/11/01, in message Dave Winer on HyperCard + Web + MORE
>From: "Kevin Altis" <al...@se...>
>
>Dave Winer gave PythonCard a mention today:
>
>http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/21#canOpenSourceCompete
>
>Most of the piece is about open source and not really about PythonCard or
>me; I think I'm mostly mentioned because of a point he wants to make about
>open source. The opinions are Dave's, not mine, so don't flame me. ;-)

I read it from Dave weblog. And I thought that it was great 
advertizement for you project.

>I'm still not entirely sure everything he is putting into Radio Userland or
>more importantly how it relates to the PythonCard goals, but he is using
>outlines for just about everything: source code (the Frontier debugger is
>outline-aware), preferences, template management, etc. and the real work is
>done via XML-RPC talking to a server.

But he produce nice softwares wich are NOT for the end user. Far too 
many features, not documented at all.

Re: [Pythoncard-users] beginner materials

[Andy T. <an...@ha...>]

Kevin Altis wrote:

> Since you can't create a PythonCard program without learning Python, I would
> like to include one or more links to materials for beginning programmers or
> people new to Python. The single best starting place I know of is Mark
> Pilgrim's Dive into Python page at
> 
> http://diveintopython.org/index.html
> 
> It has most of the other good links on the right side of the page and the
> Dive into Python material is itself quite good. I could just point beginners
> to that page.
> 
> My favorite Python book is the Python Essential Reference, 2nd Edition, but
> that is not really a book for learning Python.
> 
> Other suggestions for getting started, what you found most helpful, etc.?
> 
> If you're interested in doing tutorial or documentation for PythonCard that
> would be most welcome as well.
> 
> ka
> 


Lets not forget the 'newbies' page at python.org as well;


http://www.python.org/doc/Newbies.html


Regards,

Andy
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
"Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday

[Pythoncard-users] PythonCardPrototype release 0.5.2

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

You can get the latest PythonCardPrototype at:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19015

I made some older versions back to the last distutils build available. I can
go back even further if anyone is interested.

Remember to backup or just delete your old PythonCardPrototype directory
before installing a new version, so that the old files aren't still in the
package directory. As always, report any problems to the list.

Release 0.5.2 2001-11-22 (the "turkey" release)
moved configOptions into the framework, so it is no longer needed
  in user code
removed 'file' and 'classname' attributes from all samples
updated all samples to use simpler import and startup
  model.PythonCardApp(Classname, [resource file])
  the Classname is the actual class you want to use, not a string
  the resource file is optional and will default to the base
  name of the main module file with an extension of '.rsrc.py'
  *** IMPORTANT NOTE ***
  if you have an app of your own, you must update it to follow
  the same style as used by the samples such as minimal.py
numerous textRouter sample updates
updated textEditor and searchexplorer samples Del key handling
added check for PyCrust in wxPython
  debug checks for PyCrust on the PYTHONPATH first
added (thanks Andy) icon support under Windows to framework
added applicationDirectory variable to PythonCardApp

ka

[Pythoncard-users] beginner materials

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

Since you can't create a PythonCard program without learning Python, I would
like to include one or more links to materials for beginning programmers or
people new to Python. The single best starting place I know of is Mark
Pilgrim's Dive into Python page at

http://diveintopython.org/index.html

It has most of the other good links on the right side of the page and the
Dive into Python material is itself quite good. I could just point beginners
to that page.

My favorite Python book is the Python Essential Reference, 2nd Edition, but
that is not really a book for learning Python.

Other suggestions for getting started, what you found most helpful, etc.?

If you're interested in doing tutorial or documentation for PythonCard that
would be most welcome as well.

ka

RE: [Pythoncard-users] moving to 2.3.1 before 2.3.2 is released - wxTE_RICH option

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

> From: "Kevin Altis" <al...@se...>
> > What I would like to do is go ahead and start using wxTE_RICH
> now, rather
> > than waiting for 2.3.2 to be released, so that I can do some
> testing. The
> > biggest problem with the 32K text control is that you have to
> count and keep
> > track of newlines manually under Windows in order to make sure
> all selection
> > and insertion operations work correctly which is a major pain.
>
> Kevin, I've also noticed this (in anygui), and had to find ugly
> workarounds
> for it. If I understand you correctly, it is not needed any more when
> wxTE_RICH is used? *THAT* would be an improvement...

Correct, wxTE_RICH uses a different native control under Windows and it
appears to behave like the Linux GTK control. Not sure what will happen on
wxMac.

http://lists.wxwindows.org/pipermail/wx-dev/2001-November/014549.html

http://lists.wxwindows.org/pipermail/wx-dev/2001-November/014563.html

and other messages on the GetStringSelection thread.

It is very annoying, but I don't know whether Vadim plans to do a fix. The
problem is that if you have written code for Windows expecting it to work
one way all your code will break, but I think this is a nasty bug.

You could bring this issue up on wx-dev and see what kind of play it gets.

ka

Re: [Pythoncard-users] moving to 2.3.1 before 2.3.2 is released - wxTE_RICH option

[Thomas H. <tho...@io...>]

From: "Kevin Altis" <al...@se...>
> What I would like to do is go ahead and start using wxTE_RICH now, rather
> than waiting for 2.3.2 to be released, so that I can do some testing. The
> biggest problem with the 32K text control is that you have to count and keep
> track of newlines manually under Windows in order to make sure all selection
> and insertion operations work correctly which is a major pain.

Kevin, I've also noticed this (in anygui), and had to find ugly workarounds
for it. If I understand you correctly, it is not needed any more when
wxTE_RICH is used? *THAT* would be an improvement...

Thomas

[Pythoncard-users] moving to 2.3.1 before 2.3.2 is released - wxTE_RICH option

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

If you are using PythonCard and are unable to upgrade to 2.3.1 or 2.3.2b7
beta please let me know in the next few days, otherwise I'm going to go
ahead and change the framework so that 2.3.1 is a minimum requirement. As
stated earlier, 2.3.2 will be the minimum requirement once that is out of
beta.

For the last week or so I've wasted a lot of time on bugs and workarounds
related to the native text control used by the wxPython wxTextCtrl on
Windows when the wxTE_RICH style is NOT used. wxTE_RICH is an option added
in wxPython 2.3.1 and when it is used the native text control is the
RichEdit control which supports styled text and large blocks of text; I
don't remember the actual size limit and it may be different depending on
which Windows platform you're using. Without wxTE_RICH, you can't do styled
text and fields are limited to 32K under Windows (makes me feel like I'm
using the Mac again ;-)

What I would like to do is go ahead and start using wxTE_RICH now, rather
than waiting for 2.3.2 to be released, so that I can do some testing. The
biggest problem with the 32K text control is that you have to count and keep
track of newlines manually under Windows in order to make sure all selection
and insertion operations work correctly which is a major pain.

What I'm thinking is that the TextArea widget would use wxTE_RICH, while the
TextField and PasswordField widgets would not use it since they are single
line fields. TextField would not be able to have mixed font styles, but I
don't think that should be a big problem.

I'm going to end up writing a separate helper class to help with managing
the style list for TextArea, since wxPython doesn't provide much help.

ka

Re: [Pythoncard-users] Problems with CVS samples

[Simon K. <si...@ki...>]

[ ... text snipped ..]

> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py", 
> line 74, in on_openBackground
>      myURLDropTarget = trURLDropTarget(self)
>    File 
> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\trDragDrop.py", 
> line 8, in __init__
>      self.data = wxURLDataObject();
> NameError: global name 'wxURLDataObject' is not defined
> """


OK, this is because the wxURLDataObject thing is new in 2.3.2b7 I think.

Kevin told me I should put a check in for it, but, I left it and 
left it :) opps.

The other two errors are caused because it doesn't finish loading after
this first error.  I'll get in a check in there and it should solve the
problems.

sorry about this.

- simon

RE: [Pythoncard-users] Problems with CVS samples

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

wxURLDataObject is a wxPython 2.3.2 class for handling drag and drop of URLs
from browsers. The problem is most likely that the initialization gets
screwed up and so everything else breaks. I'm pretty sure Simon meant to add
a 2.3.2 check in his code and do a sys.exit() if not found or disable the
drag n drop, but I was rushing the update this morning, so it was
overlooked. If you ugprade to 2.3.2b7 the problem will go away, otherwise
just don't run that sample :) I'll wait until Simon has a chance to fix this
before I do a 0.5.2 release. Almost everyone in the USA will be stuffing
their faces with turkey tomorrow and shopping on Friday, so there is no
hurry.

ka

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pyt...@li...
> [mailto:pyt...@li...]On Behalf Of Andy
> Todd
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 8:18 PM
> To: Pythoncard-Users
> Subject: [Pythoncard-users] Problems with CVS samples
>
>
> After I had a look at my sample from the latest CVS I started to look at
> some of the others as well. I am getting some errors running textRouter.
> Since I'm not sure what is causing these errors I am just firing them to
>   the list for information. I've got the latest CVS of PythonCard
> running on Python 2.1 on Windows 98 with wxPython 2.3.1.
>
> When I start the sample the console window shows;
>
> """
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\wxPython_binding.py", line
> 566, in dispatchOpenBackground
>      self.dispatch.eventOccurred( event.OpenBackgroundEvent(
> self.scriptable ) )
>    File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\dispatch.py", line 71, in
> eventOccurred
>      handler.getFunction()( self._scriptable, aEvent.getSource(), aEvent )
>    File
> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py",
> line 74, in on_openBackground
>      myURLDropTarget = trURLDropTarget(self)
>    File
> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\trDragDrop.py",
> line 8, in __init__
>      self.data = wxURLDataObject();
> NameError: global name 'wxURLDataObject' is not defined
> """
>
> When I tried to access File|Preferences, I got;
>
> """
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\menu.py", line 300, in doMenu
>      item.notifyEventListeners( evt )
>    File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\event.py", line 310, in
> notifyEventListeners
>      listener.eventOccurred( event )
>    File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\dispatch.py", line 71, in
> eventOccurred
>      handler.getFunction()( self._scriptable, aEvent.getSource(), aEvent )
>    File
> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py",
> line 304, in on_menuFilePreferences_select
>      inputDetails = [["defaultDirectory",
> self.strs["genPrefs"]["defDirP"],\
> AttributeError: TextRouter instance has no attribute 'strs'
> """
>
> and the real deal breaker comes when I try and exit the application by
> either selecting File|Exit from the menu or by pressing the 'Close'
> button at the top right hand of the window;
>
> """
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File
> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py",
> line 350, in OnCloseWindow
>      self.doExit()
>    File
> "C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py",
> line 356, in doExit
>      if self.generalPrefs["autoSaveConfig"] == 'Yes':
> AttributeError: TextRouter instance has no attribute 'generalPrefs'
> """
>
> I'm also getting a strange layout in the window (screenshots available
> on request), but I think that is because this sample uses sizers which
> are not rendering very nicely on Windows98.
>
> Regards,
> Andy
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>  From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
> "Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday

RE: [Pythoncard-users] Problems with CVS samples

[Patrick K. O'B. <po...@or...>]

You may want to try wxPython-2.3.2b7-Py21-hybrid.exe, which is 2.3.2 beta
7. You can get it here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=10718

---
Patrick K. O'Brien
Orbtech
"I am, therefore I think."

-----Original Message-----
From: pyt...@li...
[mailto:pyt...@li...]On Behalf Of Andy Todd
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 10:18 PM
To: Pythoncard-Users
Subject: [Pythoncard-users] Problems with CVS samples

After I had a look at my sample from the latest CVS I started to look at
some of the others as well. I am getting some errors running textRouter.
Since I'm not sure what is causing these errors I am just firing them to
  the list for information. I've got the latest CVS of PythonCard
running on Python 2.1 on Windows 98 with wxPython 2.3.1.

[snip]

Regards,
Andy
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
"Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday


_______________________________________________
Pythoncard-users mailing list
Pyt...@li...
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pythoncard-users

[Pythoncard-users] Problems with CVS samples

[Andy T. <an...@ha...>]

After I had a look at my sample from the latest CVS I started to look at 
some of the others as well. I am getting some errors running textRouter. 
Since I'm not sure what is causing these errors I am just firing them to 
  the list for information. I've got the latest CVS of PythonCard 
running on Python 2.1 on Windows 98 with wxPython 2.3.1.

When I start the sample the console window shows;

"""
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\wxPython_binding.py", line 
566, in dispatchOpenBackground
     self.dispatch.eventOccurred( event.OpenBackgroundEvent( 
self.scriptable ) )
   File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\dispatch.py", line 71, in 
eventOccurred
     handler.getFunction()( self._scriptable, aEvent.getSource(), aEvent )
   File 
"C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py", 
line 74, in on_openBackground
     myURLDropTarget = trURLDropTarget(self)
   File 
"C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\trDragDrop.py", 
line 8, in __init__
     self.data = wxURLDataObject();
NameError: global name 'wxURLDataObject' is not defined
"""

When I tried to access File|Preferences, I got;

"""
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\menu.py", line 300, in doMenu
     item.notifyEventListeners( evt )
   File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\event.py", line 310, in 
notifyEventListeners
     listener.eventOccurred( event )
   File "c:\work\python\PythonCardPrototype\dispatch.py", line 71, in 
eventOccurred
     handler.getFunction()( self._scriptable, aEvent.getSource(), aEvent )
   File 
"C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py", 
line 304, in on_menuFilePreferences_select
     inputDetails = [["defaultDirectory", self.strs["genPrefs"]["defDirP"],\
AttributeError: TextRouter instance has no attribute 'strs'
"""

and the real deal breaker comes when I try and exit the application by 
either selecting File|Exit from the menu or by pressing the 'Close' 
button at the top right hand of the window;

"""
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File 
"C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py", 
line 350, in OnCloseWindow
     self.doExit()
   File 
"C:\Work\Python\PythonCardPrototype\samples\textRouter\textRouter.py", 
line 356, in doExit
     if self.generalPrefs["autoSaveConfig"] == 'Yes':
AttributeError: TextRouter instance has no attribute 'generalPrefs'
"""

I'm also getting a strange layout in the window (screenshots available 
on request), but I think that is because this sample uses sizers which 
are not rendering very nicely on Windows98.

Regards,
Andy
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
"Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday

Re: [Pythoncard-users] big cvs change is done, plus standalones

[Andy T. <an...@ha...>]

Kevin et al,

Kevin Altis wrote:

> I updated all the samples to use the simplified form outlined in yesterday's
> email. I also modified some of the other imports, so there is a chance I
> created a name conflict in some samples that wasn't there before.
> 
> Since this was such a big change, I'm going to go ahead and do a 0.5.2
> release later today after Andy has a chance to double-check dbBrowser.


Checked, and it works for me.

> 
> BTW, py2exe is working like a champ for building standalone executables on
> Windows. You do need to include the resource file and any files such as
> sounds, bitmaps, configs, etc. that might be loaded at runtime (not done
> with import). Simon is regularly building textRouter .exe files. The user
> can actually make changes to the resource file, such as a key binding for a
> menu, which is pretty nice and precisely what resource files are supposed to
> simplify.


A-ha, I think I have found a fly in the ointment here. It doesn't pick 
up any modules that are dynamically imported (using __import__). This is 
fine for the resource files because they can just be shipped with the 
exe, but doesn't work for dbBrowser. I dynamically import my database 
handler module (and thus its associated DB-API module such as cx_Oracle 
or MySQLdb) at run time. None of this is picked up by the distutils 
packager and thus no 'back end' modules are included in the 
distribution. I could just include 'oracleBrowse.py' and 
'mySQLBrowse.py' in my stand alone distribution but this then would fall 
over when these modules in turn try and import the appropriate database 
interface modules.

The reason I only import these at run time is to keep the application as 
light as possible, when it expands to support several different data 
sources through a multitude of interface drivers I don't want the 
overhead of importing them all and then only using one. The same goes 
for packaging I guess, which means I am rather stuck.

I don't have any quick solutions to this problem but if anyone would 
like to contribute please throw in your ideas now.

> 
> It would be interesting to see if Gordon McMillan's installer
> 
>   http://www.mcmillan-inc.com/install1.html
> 
> can be used to make Linux standalones.
> 
> ka

> 
> 

Regards,
Andy
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
"Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday

[Pythoncard-users] big cvs change is done, plus standalones

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

I updated all the samples to use the simplified form outlined in yesterday's
email. I also modified some of the other imports, so there is a chance I
created a name conflict in some samples that wasn't there before.

Since this was such a big change, I'm going to go ahead and do a 0.5.2
release later today after Andy has a chance to double-check dbBrowser.

BTW, py2exe is working like a champ for building standalone executables on
Windows. You do need to include the resource file and any files such as
sounds, bitmaps, configs, etc. that might be loaded at runtime (not done
with import). Simon is regularly building textRouter .exe files. The user
can actually make changes to the resource file, such as a key binding for a
menu, which is pretty nice and precisely what resource files are supposed to
simplify.

It would be interesting to see if Gordon McMillan's installer

  http://www.mcmillan-inc.com/install1.html

can be used to make Linux standalones.

ka

[Pythoncard-users] Re: Dave Winer on HyperCard + Web + MORE

[Dave W. <da...@us...>]

You got it right on all counts.

Dave


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Altis" <al...@se...>
To: "pythoncard-Users" <pyt...@li...>
Cc: "Dave Winer" <da...@us...>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 1:35 PM
Subject: Dave Winer on HyperCard + Web + MORE


> Dave Winer gave PythonCard a mention today:
>
>
http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/21#canOpenSourceCompete
>
> Most of the piece is about open source and not really about PythonCard or
> me; I think I'm mostly mentioned because of a point he wants to make about
> open source. The opinions are Dave's, not mine, so don't flame me. ;-)
>
> Anyway, I talked to Dave yesterday because I wanted to find out what
exactly
> he meant when he was talking about HyperCard + the Web + MORE which you
can
> read about at:
>
> http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/20#hypercardAndTheWeb
>
> and
>
> http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/19#hypercardMore
>
> I'm still not entirely sure everything he is putting into Radio Userland
or
> more importantly how it relates to the PythonCard goals, but he is using
> outlines for just about everything: source code (the Frontier debugger is
> outline-aware), preferences, template management, etc. and the real work
is
> done via XML-RPC talking to a server.
>
> Dave's solution space is web apps. If you think of a web application as a
> set of slides with the information displayed on templates, then an
> application becomes a set of user interface frames, much like the wizard
> dialogs a lot of apps use. Many HyperCard stacks could be viewed as slide
> shows with the ability to add, edit, and delete slides or search the
stack.
> This notion could be applied to a desktop app that also works in a
browser.
> Despite my distaste for the 3270 terminal interface (fill in form, press
> Enter, display result) applied to modern GUI apps, Dave might be onto
> something, so I'm going to at least pay attention.
>
> In case I completely missed the point of what Dave was trying to get
across
> yesterday and to give him a chance to correct me or follow-up I've cc'ed
him
> on this message
>
> ka
>

[Pythoncard-users] Dave Winer on HyperCard + Web + MORE

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

Dave Winer gave PythonCard a mention today:

http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/21#canOpenSourceCompete

Most of the piece is about open source and not really about PythonCard or
me; I think I'm mostly mentioned because of a point he wants to make about
open source. The opinions are Dave's, not mine, so don't flame me. ;-)

Anyway, I talked to Dave yesterday because I wanted to find out what exactly
he meant when he was talking about HyperCard + the Web + MORE which you can
read about at:

http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/20#hypercardAndTheWeb

and

http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/11/19#hypercardMore

I'm still not entirely sure everything he is putting into Radio Userland or
more importantly how it relates to the PythonCard goals, but he is using
outlines for just about everything: source code (the Frontier debugger is
outline-aware), preferences, template management, etc. and the real work is
done via XML-RPC talking to a server.

Dave's solution space is web apps. If you think of a web application as a
set of slides with the information displayed on templates, then an
application becomes a set of user interface frames, much like the wizard
dialogs a lot of apps use. Many HyperCard stacks could be viewed as slide
shows with the ability to add, edit, and delete slides or search the stack.
This notion could be applied to a desktop app that also works in a browser.
Despite my distaste for the 3270 terminal interface (fill in form, press
Enter, display result) applied to modern GUI apps, Dave might be onto
something, so I'm going to at least pay attention.

In case I completely missed the point of what Dave was trying to get across
yesterday and to give him a chance to correct me or follow-up I've cc'ed him
on this message

ka

[Pythoncard-users] applicationDirectory variable

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

While updating the samples I fixed a bug with some sample code that tracks
the directory the application starts in. In order to simply finding the
directory for any app I added a variable 'applicationDirectory' to the
application class. From the current background, you can access the variable
as:

  self.stack.app.applicationDirectory

If you need to load any sounds, bitmaps, or dialog resources in an app and
the directory may have changed, then you probably need to know the starting
app directory.

ka

[Pythoncard-users] PyCrust import now checks wxPython libs

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

wxPython 2.3.2b7, which is the latest beta of wxPython 2.3.2 includes
PyCrust 0.7. I changed the imports in debug.py, so that PythonCard first
looks for PyCrust on the PYTHONPATH and then if it isn't found, it looks for
PyCrust in the wxPython library before finally giving up. Once we switch to
wxPython 2.3.2 you will no longer need a separate install of PyCrust unless
you want to keep up with the latest version.

ka

RE: [Pythoncard-users] adios module references in resources

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

> them into cvs tomorrow. I'm going to continue to try and simplify and
> improve the startup process. For example, configOptions should just be the
> first thing that the app does, but if I move it then some other
> way will be
> needed to force an option such as always showing the shell. The turtle
> sample always uses a shell and the resourceEditor always shows
> the Property
> Editor.

Based on initial tests it does appear I can just move the configOptions call
into the framework initialization and if an app needs one of the runtime
windows, such as the shell, the user code only needs:

    config.Configuration().setOption('showShell', 1)

Assuming there isn't a side effect that I'm overlooking, the minimal sample
is simplified even further and is shown below.

I'm leaving in the if __name__ == '__main__' statement because once we
support multi-windows and/or backgrounds it should be possible to just
import a module and use that background/window in your own app assuming that
the class is designed to be used standalone or as part of another app. I
haven't fleshed out this idea yet, it is just something that came up when I
was thinking about components and redoing the debug windows as PythonCard
windows instead of raw wxPython. It would probably be very similar to what
Robin is already doing with the wxPython demo.py code. If you didn't expect
to ever import the main module then the if statement isn't necessary.

ka
---

from PythonCardPrototype import model

class Minimal(model.Background):
    def on_menuFileExit_select(self, menu, event):
        self.Close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = model.PythonCardApp(Minimal)
    app.MainLoop()

[Pythoncard-users] adios module references in resources

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

The existing resource format requires a reference back to the module
filename and classname as shown by the following fragment of
minimal.rsrc.py:

  { 'type':'Background',
    'file':'minimal.py',
    'classname':'Minimal',
    'name':'bgMin',
   'components':

This has always seemed sort of redundant to me, but it was necessary based
on the original loader mechanism. Now that the loader functionality is
limited to configuration options and has been moved to config.py I wanted to
see if I could modify the load process. The first simplification appears to
work, but before committing the change I thought I would get some feedback
(fingers crossed).

The change means that the file and classname attributes are no longer used
in the resource file and there is no longer a circular import of the main
module. In order for the application to know which class to use for the main
body of code, that has to be passed in as a parameter.

    app = model.PythonCardApp(Minimal, filename)

A modified minimal.py is shown at the end of this message. I changed the
imports. The filename for the resource is optional. If it isn't provided,
then the framework looks for a file with the same basename (e.g. 'minimal' +
'.rsrc.py'); this is identical to what we used to supply in the user code,
but now it is handled automatically by the framework, yet you can still
override with your own resource file if necessary. I think this is cleaner
than what we had before.

This new format means that you can change the main class (Minimal in the
code below) to a different class, by simply changing the initialization
line.

So, unless anyone sees a problem with these initial changes, I'll update all
the samples, verify that there aren't any unexpected side effects and check
them into cvs tomorrow. I'm going to continue to try and simplify and
improve the startup process. For example, configOptions should just be the
first thing that the app does, but if I move it then some other way will be
needed to force an option such as always showing the shell. The turtle
sample always uses a shell and the resourceEditor always shows the Property
Editor.

The framework still assumes a single background, but that is one of the next
changes I have in mind. Essentially, you'll have a main background and any
number of additional child windows that contain their own background. I will
probably wait on this change until I investigate some other bits since it
has some complications as far as the menus, window size, etc.

Suggestions on any or all of these issues are welcome.

ka
---

from PythonCardPrototype import model, config

class Minimal(model.Background):
    def on_menuFileExit_select(self, menu, event):
        self.Close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    config.configOptions()

    app = model.PythonCardApp(Minimal)
    app.MainLoop()

[Pythoncard-users] Icon support in PythonCard

[Andy T. <an...@ha...>]

All,

I've added support for application icons to the framework. I've also 
amended the dbBrowser sample to show this feature in use. It is 
currently in CVS and will be included in the next prototype release.

This functionality currently works for MS Windows only, if anyone would 
like to provide a patch for *nix (or MacOS ;-) they will be most welcome.

All you need to do is add an 'icon' entry to the stack definition in 
your application resource file. This then expects a valid filename 
pointing to an icon file, e.g;

   { 'type':'Stack',
     'name':'myApplication',
     'title':'myApp',
     'position':(1,1),
     'size':(1,1),
     'icon':'myIcon.ico',

This has only been tested with Windows icon files but please try some 
other file types.

Regards,
Andy
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 From the desk of Andrew J Todd esq.
"Another year older, still no wiser." - Me, on my birthday

[Pythoncard-users] FW: [wxPython] wxPython 2.3.2b7

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

2.3.2 has a tentative release date. Once 2.3.2 is out it will become part of
the minimum requirements for PythonCard.

ka

-----Original Message-----
From: wxp...@li...
[mailto:wxp...@li...]On Behalf Of Robin Dunn
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 11:42 AM
To: wxPython-users
Subject: [wxPython] wxPython 2.3.2b7


I've just uploaded 2.3.2b7 to Sourceforge, when SF updates itself, the files
will show up in this group:
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=10718&release_id=5688
0.  The previous prerelease files are still there so be sure to check
version numbers before you download.  I've included a hybrid build for
Python 2.1 on win32 and for you folks on *nix there is a wxGTK source
snapshot, wxPython sources, and a tarball of the docs.

If you are tracking CVS then this release is tagged as wxPy_2_3_2b7.

There have been a number of bugs fixed in both wxWindows and wxPython since
b6, as well as a few new wxPython features.  Please download it and give it
whirl.  If you've reported bugs recently and I've indicated that they have
been fixed already in CVS please verify it and let me know if they have been
fixed or not.

This will probably be the last prerelease for 2.3.2 as wx-dev has just
decided when to do the official 2.3.2 release.  We are shooting for about
two weeks from now, which means that wxPython 2.3.2 will probably be done
within a week after that.

To those of you who have contributed code to wxPython this is your warning
if you want anything new to show up in 2.3.2 that you need to get tested
patches (using "cvs diff") to me within the next two weeks.

--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman
ro...@Al...       Java give you jitters?
http://wxPython.org      Relax with wxPython!





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Re: [Pythoncard-users] TextRouter gets a mention at Scripting News

[Simon K. <si...@ki...>]

> Good work Simon, keep it up. Does this mean though that Dave Winer 
> personally reviews every post to every Manila weblog? Just a thought ;-)

thanks :)

I posted a small note to the bloggerDev mailing list so I guess Dave
Winer saw it there.

Simon