visualpython-users

Re: [Visualpython-users] An important VPython-wx milestone

[K.-Michael A. <kmi...@gm...>]

On Dec 21, 2012, at 20:08, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:

> The mistake I made is so arcane as to be of little value to others. I used DrawText to create an RGB bitmap to be used as a texture on an OpenGL quad in C++ to form the label object. Part of the bitmap is background pixels which by C++ program will be assigned opacity values of 0 to let the background quad show through. For subtle antialiasing issues in the preparation of the bitmap I used not the label background color but a color very similar to the foreground color. This led to a spreading of the text strokes which uglified the text. The cure was simply to use the label background color as the background color in the preparation of the bitmap using DrawText, an approach I had tried early on but abandoned when I ran into difficulties, difficulties that later were removed by other developments. Sorry you asked?
> 
> I guess we should do the experiment of using the github machinery for the reporting of bugs. I encourage everyone to wait a short time before trying VPython-wx because Steve Spicklemire is in the process of finalizing the machinery for creating easy-to-use installers.
> 

Oh, I wanted to comment on that: Xcode is still freely available via App Store and with it come the compilers that should be able to build everything. So I'm not sure the requirement of building complete binary installers for Mac is really THAT stringent? Alternatively the 'brew' system delivers a lot of command line tools without much hassle so maybe I should give it a go with a trial of compilations? 

Michael

> Bruce Sherwood
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 8:18 PM, K.-Michael Aye <kmi...@gm...> wrote:
>> Could you briefly describe the mistake you made, so that we learn something about what can go wrong with wxpython?
>> 
>> Happy holidays!
>> 
>> PS.: As I am a Mac user, I offer to test the stuff on my Mac, shall I report via github issues or here in the mailing list?
>> 
>> 
>> On Dec 21, 2012, w52, at 7:12 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>> 
>> > Now fixed. As has happened a number of times in the past, someone in the wxPython community immediately pointed out the (dumb) mistake I'd made. The label fonts now look fine, and there are no major errors visible in the standard demo suite.
>> >
>> > Bruce Sherwood
>> >
>> > On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>> > The wxPython fonts look quite ugly in label objects, and I've asked the wxPython community about this. I hope they'll tell me that I'm doing something wrong.
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> 
> 

Re: [Visualpython-users] An important VPython-wx milestone

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

The mistake I made is so arcane as to be of little value to others. I used
DrawText to create an RGB bitmap to be used as a texture on an OpenGL quad
in C++ to form the label object. Part of the bitmap is background pixels
which by C++ program will be assigned opacity values of 0 to let the
background quad show through. For subtle antialiasing issues in the
preparation of the bitmap I used not the label background color but a color
very similar to the foreground color. This led to a spreading of the text
strokes which uglified the text. The cure was simply to use the label
background color as the background color in the preparation of the bitmap
using DrawText, an approach I had tried early on but abandoned when I ran
into difficulties, difficulties that later were removed by other
developments. Sorry you asked?

I guess we should do the experiment of using the github machinery for the
reporting of bugs. I encourage everyone to wait a short time before trying
VPython-wx because Steve Spicklemire is in the process of finalizing the
machinery for creating easy-to-use installers.

Bruce Sherwood


On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 8:18 PM, K.-Michael Aye <kmi...@gm...>wrote:

> Could you briefly describe the mistake you made, so that we learn
> something about what can go wrong with wxpython?
>
> Happy holidays!
>
> PS.: As I am a Mac user, I offer to test the stuff on my Mac, shall I
> report via github issues or here in the mailing list?
>
>
> On Dec 21, 2012, w52, at 7:12 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...>
> wrote:
>
> > Now fixed. As has happened a number of times in the past, someone in the
> wxPython community immediately pointed out the (dumb) mistake I'd made. The
> label fonts now look fine, and there are no major errors visible in the
> standard demo suite.
> >
> > Bruce Sherwood
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Bruce Sherwood <
> Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> > The wxPython fonts look quite ugly in label objects, and I've asked the
> wxPython community about this. I hope they'll tell me that I'm doing
> something wrong.
> >
> >
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> http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d_______________________________________________
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> > Vis...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] An important VPython-wx milestone

[K.-Michael A. <kmi...@gm...>]

Could you briefly describe the mistake you made, so that we learn something about what can go wrong with wxpython?

Happy holidays!

PS.: As I am a Mac user, I offer to test the stuff on my Mac, shall I report via github issues or here in the mailing list?


On Dec 21, 2012, w52, at 7:12 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:

> Now fixed. As has happened a number of times in the past, someone in the wxPython community immediately pointed out the (dumb) mistake I'd made. The label fonts now look fine, and there are no major errors visible in the standard demo suite.
> 
> Bruce Sherwood
> 
> On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> The wxPython fonts look quite ugly in label objects, and I've asked the wxPython community about this. I hope they'll tell me that I'm doing something wrong.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free Trial
> Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support
> Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services
> Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d_______________________________________________
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> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users

Re: [Visualpython-users] An important VPython-wx milestone

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Now fixed. As has happened a number of times in the past, someone in the
wxPython community immediately pointed out the (dumb) mistake I'd made. The
label fonts now look fine, and there are no major errors visible in the
standard demo suite.

Bruce Sherwood

On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...>wrote:

> The wxPython fonts look quite ugly in label objects, and I've asked the
> wxPython community about this. I hope they'll tell me that I'm doing
> something wrong.

[Visualpython-users] An important VPython-wx milestone

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

VPython-wx can now run all the standard VPython demos. The only remaining
piece of platform-dependent code is tiny routines for something called
GetProcAddress. Threads have been eliminated from the C++ code. Eliminating
threads and platform-dependent C++ code should make it much easier to
maintain and extend VPython in the future. Of immediate importance is that
VPython-wx runs on 64-bit Python on the Mac, using Cocoa, which was
impossible with the old VPython architecture.

Steve Spicklemire has been providing great support in this effort. He got
mouse zoom and rotate working correctly, and he has been developing
distutils machinery for easy building on Windows/Mac/Linux. He is
investigating various options for building user installers (the distinction
is that to build you need a C++ compiler, whereas Windows and Mac users
need binary installers; most Windows users don't have a compiler installed,
and a compiler is no longer included in the standard Mac installation).
Steve has also been testing VPython-wx on Mac and Linux, while I
concentrated on Windows. Thanks so much, Steve!

The wxPython fonts look quite ugly in label objects, and I've asked the
wxPython community about this. I hope they'll tell me that I'm doing
something wrong.

Next priorities are wider testing by Steve and me, and installers for all
platforms to make it easy for adventurers to try it out.

After that, it is intended to make it easy to place a VPython canvas in a
wxPython window and add buttons, sliders, etc. to other locations in the
window, as well as adding standard menus. In the longer run the current
emphasis on CPU OpenGL graphics should be replaced by using GPUs on the
graphics card.

Bruce Sherwood

P.S. In other news, there is a new project Brython (www.brython.info) whose
developer is creating a Python-to-JavaScript compiler, which means one
could run Python programs in a browser. GlowScript (glowscript.org, the
browser-based 3D programming environment I'm developing that is similar to
VPython) already lets you write your programs in either JavaScript or in
CoffeeScript, which compiles to JavaScript. Maybe it will be possible to
use Brython to let GlowScript programs be written in Python, which I feel
is a significantly better language for the purpose than either JavaScript
or CoffeeScript.

Re: [Visualpython-users] Simple question before diving into JPython.

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I should have said: You can execute statements to position the camera in a
VPython program and not rely on manual zoom and rotate, if that is
important to you. Also, note that you can write an animation in VPython and
generate a series of POVRAY scene-description files to process.

Bruce Sherwood


On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...>wrote:

> In the Contributed section of vpython.org is a module you can import into
> a VPython program which generates a file containing POVRAY scene
> description language equivalent to the VPython scene. You can then process
> that file with POVRAY. Unless you make the VPython scene invisible, the
> execution of the VPython program will display the scene, which apparently
> you don't want to happen. However, a typical way to use the POVRAY export
> module in VPython is to wait for a mouse click before generating the POVRAY
> file, so that you can use the mouse to zoom and rotate the scene before
> generating the file.
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Denis BEURIVE <den...@gm...>wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Before I dive into JPython, I have a simple question.
>>
>> I am looking for a tool that can generate a 3D image (and eventually a 3D
>> animation) from a script.
>>
>> I know POVRAY, that I've already used. But POVRAY language used to
>> describe the scene is too limited for what I need to do.
>>
>> Python, which I already used, would be excellent.
>>
>> So, can I follow this procedure :
>>
>>    - I write a Python script that creates one (or several successive)
>>    scene(s).
>>    - Then a run Python on the script in order to generate an image (or a
>>    list of images).
>>
>> What I mean is : Do I need to run the user interface in order to create
>> an image (or a list of images) ?
>>
>> Note : A problem with POVRAY is that we can not call the renderer without
>> executing the user interface. Well... we can call POVRAY with some command
>> line arguments. But it is really limited. And the INI file must be assigned
>> with the user interface...
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Denis
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support
>> Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services
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>>
>>
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] Simple question before diving into JPython.

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

In the Contributed section of vpython.org is a module you can import into a
VPython program which generates a file containing POVRAY scene description
language equivalent to the VPython scene. You can then process that file
with POVRAY. Unless you make the VPython scene invisible, the execution of
the VPython program will display the scene, which apparently you don't want
to happen. However, a typical way to use the POVRAY export module in
VPython is to wait for a mouse click before generating the POVRAY file, so
that you can use the mouse to zoom and rotate the scene before generating
the file.

Bruce Sherwood


On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Denis BEURIVE <den...@gm...>wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Before I dive into JPython, I have a simple question.
>
> I am looking for a tool that can generate a 3D image (and eventually a 3D
> animation) from a script.
>
> I know POVRAY, that I've already used. But POVRAY language used to
> describe the scene is too limited for what I need to do.
>
> Python, which I already used, would be excellent.
>
> So, can I follow this procedure :
>
>    - I write a Python script that creates one (or several successive)
>    scene(s).
>    - Then a run Python on the script in order to generate an image (or a
>    list of images).
>
> What I mean is : Do I need to run the user interface in order to create an
> image (or a list of images) ?
>
> Note : A problem with POVRAY is that we can not call the renderer without
> executing the user interface. Well... we can call POVRAY with some command
> line arguments. But it is really limited. And the INI file must be assigned
> with the user interface...
>
> Best regards,
>
> Denis
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free Trial
> Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support
> Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services
> Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>
>

[Visualpython-users] Simple question before diving into JPython.

[Denis B. <den...@gm...>]

Hello,

Before I dive into JPython, I have a simple question.

I am looking for a tool that can generate a 3D image (and eventually a 3D
animation) from a script.

I know POVRAY, that I've already used. But POVRAY language used to describe
the scene is too limited for what I need to do.

Python, which I already used, would be excellent.

So, can I follow this procedure :

   - I write a Python script that creates one (or several successive)
   scene(s).
   - Then a run Python on the script in order to generate an image (or a
   list of images).

What I mean is : Do I need to run the user interface in order to create an
image (or a list of images) ?

Note : A problem with POVRAY is that we can not call the renderer without
executing the user interface. Well... we can call POVRAY with some command
line arguments. But it is really limited. And the INI file must be assigned
with the user interface...

Best regards,

Denis

[Visualpython-users] label starting to work on VPython-wx

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Finally, the last piece of VPython has surrendered to running on wxPython,
the label object. Some color/opacity details of label aren't quite right,
but for the first time I've seen text appear, after a long struggle. This
means that as far as I know we have an existence proof for a version of
VPython which 1) has essentially no platform-specific code and 2) has none
of the complications of threading.

Not ready for a release yet, but this is a significant milestone.

The latest code has been uploaded to the GitHub repository at

https://github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More VPython-wx progress

[Jim V. <jim...@no...>]

That is great news!  Thanks for you continued work on VPython.  --jv

On 11/29/2012 4:03 PM, Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> Thanks to some help from experts in the wxPython forum, for the first 
> time I managed to display text on an object, using 
> platform-independent code. It's not yet part of the VPython-wx 
> experimental package, because I have to integrate this capability with 
> the label machinery, but this was the last issue preventing the 
> elimination of platform-dependent code.
>
> The key breakthrough was to realize that wxPython has functions for 
> writing 2D text and graphics to an off-screen bitmap and then reading 
> back the numeric data from the bitmap. This array of data can be 
> passed to the existing numeric texture option in VPython. This 
> capability can be exploited by the label object, but it will also make 
> it possible to place text on any object.
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel:
> VERIFY Test and improve your parallel project with help from experts
> and peers. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
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[Visualpython-users] More VPython-wx progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Thanks to some help from experts in the wxPython forum, for the first time
I managed to display text on an object, using platform-independent code.
It's not yet part of the VPython-wx experimental package, because I have to
integrate this capability with the label machinery, but this was the last
issue preventing the elimination of platform-dependent code.

The key breakthrough was to realize that wxPython has functions for writing
2D text and graphics to an off-screen bitmap and then reading back the
numeric data from the bitmap. This array of data can be passed to the
existing numeric texture option in VPython. This capability can be
exploited by the label object, but it will also make it possible to place
text on any object.

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] Problem with Ubuntu+intel?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

You've probably already looked into this, but it sure sounds like problems
with the graphics driver, in which case it's possible that updating the
graphics driver would cure the problem.

Another possibility to try is disable some graphics options in
site-packages/vis/site-settings.py.

Bruce Sherwood


On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 11:31 AM, Tobias Schlegelmilch <
t.s...@go...> wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> I'm posting on this mailing list because I cannot figure out how to
> solve a very annoying problem.
>
> I have two machines running Ubuntu 12.10: a HP nc2400 and a Thinkpad
> T43. Both with intel graphics. On both, vpython runs very slow and
> choppy, so I can't use it.
>
> I tried every hint I could get by asking google: installing
> libgtkglextmm-x11-1.2-dev, LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1,
> LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1, but no solution.
> If I start driconf and switch of ARB_fragment_shader support, then the
> performance is significantly better, but colors are wrong. The
> background of the window is green instead of black.
>
> Do you have a hint how to get vpython in a useful state on ubuntu with
> intel graphics?
>
> Thank you, best regards
> Tobias
>
>
>
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[Visualpython-users] Problem with Ubuntu+intel?

[Tobias S. <t.s...@go...>]

Hello everybody,

I'm posting on this mailing list because I cannot figure out how to 
solve a very annoying problem.

I have two machines running Ubuntu 12.10: a HP nc2400 and a Thinkpad 
T43. Both with intel graphics. On both, vpython runs very slow and 
choppy, so I can't use it.

I tried every hint I could get by asking google: installing 
libgtkglextmm-x11-1.2-dev, LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1, 
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1, but no solution.
If I start driconf and switch of ARB_fragment_shader support, then the 
performance is significantly better, but colors are wrong. The 
background of the window is green instead of black.

Do you have a hint how to get vpython in a useful state on ubuntu with 
intel graphics?

Thank you, best regards
Tobias

Re: [Visualpython-users] Linux questions

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I was dimly aware of the pkg-config machinery but didn't know of this
particular trick. Thanks! The level of my experience is highest on
Windows, next on Mac, and lowest on Linux, so I welcome all the help I
can get. I would particularly welcome someone with strong Linux skills
taking over the task of creating installation packages for VPython-wx.

Bruce

On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 5:31 AM, Douglas S. Blank
<db...@cs...> wrote:
> Bruce,
>
> You may know this, but if a package is installed with package-config
> support, and its .pc file can be found on the PKG_CONFIG_PATH, then you
> can:
>
> pkg-config --variable=includedir python
>
> and get the path to the include files (if it is defined).
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> -Doug
>
> --
> Douglas S. Blank
> Associate Professor, Computer Science, Bryn Mawr College
> http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dblank  (610)526-6501
>
>> I've started the attempt to build VPython-wx on a 64-bit Ubuntu Linux
>> (12.04). I'm hoping to be able to use a simple makefile, as is the
>> case on the Mac rather than invoking the very complex autoconfig
>> machinery. Dunno whether that's misguided, and I would welcome
>> comments from knowledge Linux users. Or maybe I should be using
>> distutils or something? I'm not having much success in trying to deal
>> with the dependencies.
>>
>> There is only one substantive piece of platform-dependent code
>> currently remaining in VPython-wx, turning fonts into textures for
>> display in label objects. It's possible that this too could be handled
>> by wxPython, and I did find an example of such manipulations:
>>
>>      http://d0t.dbclan.de/snippets/gltext.html, "wxpython/opengl easy
>> text to texture class"
>>
>> It's possible that working with this wxPython code would be easier
>> than fighting through the many Linux dependencies just to get at
>> fonts.One of the big advantages of VPython-wx is the possibility of
>> letting wxPython deal with all of that complexity.
>>
>> In tracking down various Linux include files, I see some locations like
>>
>>      /usr/include/xyz....
>>
>> and others like
>>
>>      /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xyz/include
>>
>> Is there some trick for expressing the second kind of reference in a
>> simpler form, more like the first form? Some sort of global switch
>> that says, "Look for 64-bit versions"?
>>
>> Bruce Sherwood
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware,
>> SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial.
>> Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications!
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>>

[Visualpython-users] Linux questions

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I've started the attempt to build VPython-wx on a 64-bit Ubuntu Linux
(12.04). I'm hoping to be able to use a simple makefile, as is the
case on the Mac rather than invoking the very complex autoconfig
machinery. Dunno whether that's misguided, and I would welcome
comments from knowledge Linux users. Or maybe I should be using
distutils or something? I'm not having much success in trying to deal
with the dependencies.

There is only one substantive piece of platform-dependent code
currently remaining in VPython-wx, turning fonts into textures for
display in label objects. It's possible that this too could be handled
by wxPython, and I did find an example of such manipulations:

     http://d0t.dbclan.de/snippets/gltext.html, "wxpython/opengl easy
text to texture class"

It's possible that working with this wxPython code would be easier
than fighting through the many Linux dependencies just to get at
fonts.One of the big advantages of VPython-wx is the possibility of
letting wxPython deal with all of that complexity.

In tracking down various Linux include files, I see some locations like

     /usr/include/xyz....

and others like

     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xyz/include

Is there some trick for expressing the second kind of reference in a
simpler form, more like the first form? Some sort of global switch
that says, "Look for 64-bit versions"?

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I should mention that after trying various tools for managing GItHub
repositories, I can recommend SmartGit, available on all platforms
(Windows, Mac, Linux).

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

For keyboard input, I translate keycode numbers from a US keyboard
into strings, so that pressing the Enter key returns the string
"enter".

If there is someone in the VPython community knowledgeable about
non-US keyboards and would like to contribute alternative translation
tables, I'd be delighted to make them accessible in the new VPython.
Take a look at the GitHub file

site-packages/visual_common/create_display.py

which contains the US keyboard translation table. Probably the
keyboard table should be imported from a file "keyboard-us.py", and
similarly for other tables. We could add to the site-settings.py file
options to specify what keyboard layout to use by default, and now
that we'll have pull-down menus we can give the end user a choice (or
maybe there's a way to detect the keyboard?).

One of the goals of vpython-wx is to make it a lot easier for people
to contribute to its further development. The old VPython depended on
a lot of multithreaded C++ code, but the new version has eliminated
the threading, which makes many things a whole lot simpler (and you
don't have to worry about a lot of now nonexistent potential threading
problems), and the new version has much of the key user interface
stuff written in Python.

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Uploaded to GitHub: Keyboard inputs are now handled, in the same way
as in VPython 5.x. Given various past requests, I'd like to augment
keyboard events to make it possible to detect down and up events, and
whether control keys are also down (such as shift and ctrl). But first
I want to get the new VPython in shape so it can be used as an
alternative to the existing version, and I said earlier, there are
some minor bugs that remain.

I thank Steve Spicklemire for expressing the willingness to see
whether he could take on the task of producing installers of the new
VPython for the Mac.

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

More progress, uploaded to github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx.
Textures are now supported on both Mac and Windows. I haven't worked
on Linux yet.

Known bugs: Mouse interactions aren't quite right on the Mac, using a
3-button mouse, and I haven't yet tackled the one-button mouse. No
keyboard event handling yet (which is related to handling a one-button
mouse). Minor bugs, such as not being able to make a window invisible.

Aspirations not yet addressed: Placing a 3D VPython canvas in a window
larger than the canvas, and making it possible to add wxPython
elements such as buttons to the window. Exploiting GPUs on graphics
cards (which means importing such developments from the GlowScript
project).

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

At github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx there is now code that works on
the Mac, but still with no textures (need to invoke GetProcAddress,
which is platform-specific), and spin/zoom which works on Windows is
buggy on the Mac. I haven't tried Linux yet.

This includes improved documentation for building the C++ code for
Windows and Mac.

Bruce Sherwood

[Visualpython-users] Changing control and graph attributes

[Brian S. <bri...@gm...>]

Hi,

I'm having trouble updating control and graph attributes after I've already
created them:

my_slider.max = 50
my_gdisplay.ymax = 50

In the slider case, the _location_ of the actual rendered slider doesn't
change in response to me changing the max value. It does seem to 'catch up'
once I try moving the slider, but not before.

In the case of the gdisplay, it seems setting ymin or ymax doesn't do
anything to the graph. I can only get ymin and ymax to work when i
initially create the gdisplay (e.g., my_gdisplay=gdisplay(ymax=50))

Is this a known issue? I don't see anything in the documentation about it.

I'm using VPython-Py 3.2 on OS X 10.8.

Best,

Brian

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Guilherme B. T. <gui...@gm...>]

Dear Bruce,

Congratulations for the progress with wxPython.

I'm trying to get it to run on OS X 10.6.8.
For that I'm hacking around with the build system. In short, I removed 
X11, GTK and added mac_font_rendering to the build. The compilation runs 
till it chokes on the font_renderer.

With wxPython, if understand correctly, besides solving the main thread 
issue one can also remove the X11 and GTK dependencies.

Isn't it so that by dropping GTK (and the rendering via pango) we need 
to switch back to the mac_font_rendering?

The header for and the function ATSUFindFontFromName is nowhere to be 
found on my system. Isn't it only for the deprecated Carbon?

I guess the font_renderer need a bump from ATSUI to CoreText in order to 
work with the Cocoa text system.

Is the above the right way to go?

So far I found some snippets that might help with the transition to 
CoreText [1]

Regards,
Guilherme Torri

[1] 
https://github.com/jjgod/xetex/commit/26b80b6a946164f4b5b2a565702bc6789a568229



On 12/11/12 01:01, Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> I should also point out two minor changes in VPython syntax:
>
> 1) You must have a rate statement in a loop. Otherwise no display will
> be made until you exit the loop. If the loop is eternal, you will
> never see a display.
>
> 2) In current VPython, if you say "from visual.graph import *" you
> also get everything you would get from "from visual import *". Now you
> have to say both things to get a display:
>
> from visual import *
> from visual.graph import *
>
> As before, you can be more selective and not import math, numpy, etc.:
>
> import vis
> import vis.graph
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 4:52 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>> I've created a new GitHub repository for the wxPython version of VPython:
>>
>>     github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx
>>
>> Should you wish to play with this, note that at the moment I think it
>> will only work on Windows, for which I handle GetProcAddress (in the
>> file site-packages/visual_common/create_display.py).
>>
>> You need to install wxPython, and at this moment there isn't yet a
>> version of wxPython for Python 3.x, though it seems to be not far off.
>>
>> In the folders visual and vis are __init__.py files that invoke
>> create_display.py, which does the Jiu-Jitsu trick of importing the
>> user's file that imported visual or vis..
>>
>> Bruce Sherwood
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>>> Today for the first time I was able to run all of the standard VPython
>>> programs with a version of VPython based on wxPython. There's still
>>> some polishing to be done before a release, but I'm delighted to have
>>> gotten this far.
>>>
>>> Remember that one thing this will lead to is a version that uses Cocoa
>>> on the Mac and can therefore permit running on a 64-bit Python.
>>> Another thing it should make possible is being able to put a 3D
>>> graphics canvas in a window that also has native buttons, sliders,
>>> etc., and with native pull-down menus.
>>>
>>> Bruce Sherwood
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Everyone hates slow websites. So do we.
> Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics
> Download AppDynamics Lite for free today:
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_nov
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I should also point out two minor changes in VPython syntax:

1) You must have a rate statement in a loop. Otherwise no display will
be made until you exit the loop. If the loop is eternal, you will
never see a display.

2) In current VPython, if you say "from visual.graph import *" you
also get everything you would get from "from visual import *". Now you
have to say both things to get a display:

from visual import *
from visual.graph import *

As before, you can be more selective and not import math, numpy, etc.:

import vis
import vis.graph

Bruce Sherwood

On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 4:52 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> I've created a new GitHub repository for the wxPython version of VPython:
>
>    github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx
>
> Should you wish to play with this, note that at the moment I think it
> will only work on Windows, for which I handle GetProcAddress (in the
> file site-packages/visual_common/create_display.py).
>
> You need to install wxPython, and at this moment there isn't yet a
> version of wxPython for Python 3.x, though it seems to be not far off.
>
> In the folders visual and vis are __init__.py files that invoke
> create_display.py, which does the Jiu-Jitsu trick of importing the
> user's file that imported visual or vis..
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
> On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>> Today for the first time I was able to run all of the standard VPython
>> programs with a version of VPython based on wxPython. There's still
>> some polishing to be done before a release, but I'm delighted to have
>> gotten this far.
>>
>> Remember that one thing this will lead to is a version that uses Cocoa
>> on the Mac and can therefore permit running on a 64-bit Python.
>> Another thing it should make possible is being able to put a 3D
>> graphics canvas in a window that also has native buttons, sliders,
>> etc., and with native pull-down menus.
>>
>> Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I've created a new GitHub repository for the wxPython version of VPython:

   github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx

Should you wish to play with this, note that at the moment I think it
will only work on Windows, for which I handle GetProcAddress (in the
file site-packages/visual_common/create_display.py).

You need to install wxPython, and at this moment there isn't yet a
version of wxPython for Python 3.x, though it seems to be not far off.

In the folders visual and vis are __init__.py files that invoke
create_display.py, which does the Jiu-Jitsu trick of importing the
user's file that imported visual or vis..

Bruce Sherwood

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> Today for the first time I was able to run all of the standard VPython
> programs with a version of VPython based on wxPython. There's still
> some polishing to be done before a release, but I'm delighted to have
> gotten this far.
>
> Remember that one thing this will lead to is a version that uses Cocoa
> on the Mac and can therefore permit running on a 64-bit Python.
> Another thing it should make possible is being able to put a 3D
> graphics canvas in a window that also has native buttons, sliders,
> etc., and with native pull-down menus.
>
> Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] More wxPython progress

[K.-Michael A. <kmi...@gm...>]

Dear Bruce,

Let me sincerely congratulate on that progress. Us Mac users understand that this is an important step to ensure the survival of vpython in the future, so I'm very very happy to see some light at the end of the tunnel for this problem. 
Now that the future seems safer, one might think about bigger projects with a bit more investment of time. I personally was always dreaming of a space mission planning tool to visualize instrument coverage on planetary objects. There are tools out there but written in Java, so, no further comment ;)
Thanks a lot for your effort and have a nice Sunday!

Michael

PS: sorry that I made no progress in compiling vpython for Enthought but I reached difficulties that were higher than my knowledge of compilations so I gave up for now. Maybe I could try again with the wx version some time? I don't know if it makes a difference though?

On Nov 10, 2012, at 15:18, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:

> Today for the first time I was able to run all of the standard VPython
> programs with a version of VPython based on wxPython. There's still
> some polishing to be done before a release, but I'm delighted to have
> gotten this far.
> 
> Remember that one thing this will lead to is a version that uses Cocoa
> on the Mac and can therefore permit running on a 64-bit Python.
> Another thing it should make possible is being able to put a 3D
> graphics canvas in a window that also has native buttons, sliders,
> etc., and with native pull-down menus.
> 
> Bruce Sherwood
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Everyone hates slow websites. So do we.
> Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics
> Download AppDynamics Lite for free today:
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_nov
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users