visualpython-users

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visualpython-users Digest, Vol 31, Issue 9

[Joe H. <hea...@gm...>]

Good afternoon.
I just installed the new Visual 5 candidate on my MacBook Pro running OS X
10.5.5 and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card and all seems to work very
well. I encountered the documented startup problem (Visual doesn't run
initially) and the fix on the website worked. This is a weird problem! But
once Visual runs my program work seemingly perfectly. I note that graphics
windows don't seem to respond to cmd-w, which should close the current
window. I also persistently get the message "Shader would be emulated in
software; disabling." message when running texturetest.py. According to the
Wikipedia article, my graphics card should support PS3.0. IDLE under
MacPython 2.5.2 has no configuration options. Windows don't respond to the
trackpad fingertip gestures either.

Joe Heafner

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visualpython-users Digest, Vol 31, Issue 9

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

Thanks for the report. A colleague with a desktop Mac and Radeon X1900 
also doesn't get materials like wood to display, despite his drivers 
seeming to be up to date. Presumably you see transparent objects, and 
local lights, but no materials.

Cmd-q quits, but I guess we forgot cmd-w.

What's an example of a trackpad fingertip gesture that is not processed? 
(Not sure what we can do about it, but it would be good to know what the 
issue is.)

Remember that IDLE is a known problem. It's not really a VPython 
problem, but as I mentioned before, David Scherer is working on it anyway.

In Spring 2000 when Scherer was creating VPython, he also took the 
rather rudimentary IDLE then packaged with Python and built it into 
something close to what you know today. It was further extended, 
including adding a configuration menu, by various other people. During 
this year while working on Visual 5, Scherer got more and more annoyed 
with various inconveniences that have crept in over the years, and he's 
trying to carry out a thorough house-cleaning. Our intent is to package 
this alternative IDLE with Visual 5, with the hope that it would be a 
candidate for replacing the existing Python IDLE. But even if that 
replacement doesn't happen, or doesn't happen for a while, we'll be able 
to use either the standard one or Scherer's cleaned up one, which we're 
tentatively referring to as VIDLE for clarity. And of course it will 
have a configuration menu again.

Bruce Sherwood

Joe Heafner wrote:
> Good afternoon.
> 
> I just installed the new Visual 5 candidate on my MacBook Pro running OS 
> X 10.5.5 and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card and all seems to work 
> very well. I encountered the documented startup problem (Visual doesn't 
> run initially) and the fix on the website worked. This is a weird 
> problem! But once Visual runs my program work seemingly perfectly. I 
> note that graphics windows don't seem to respond to cmd-w, which should 
> close the current window. I also persistently get the message "Shader 
> would be emulated in software; disabling." message when running 
> texturetest.py. According to the Wikipedia article, my graphics card 
> should support PS3.0. IDLE under MacPython 2.5.2 has no configuration 
> options. Windows don't respond to the trackpad fingertip gestures either.
> 
> Joe Heafner

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visualpython-users Digest, Vol 31, Issue 9

[Joe H. <hea...@gm...>]

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 4:27 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...>wrote:

> Thanks for the report. A colleague with a desktop Mac and Radeon X1900 also
> doesn't get materials like wood to display, despite his drivers seeming to
> be up to date. Presumably you see transparent objects, and local lights, but
> no materials.


As far as I can tell, that's correct. Apple users are at Apple's mercy when
it comes to video driver updates.


> Cmd-q quits, but I guess we forgot cmd-w.


cmd-w works in an IDLE window, just not in a VPython graphics window


What's an example of a trackpad fingertip gesture that is not processed?
> (Not sure what we can do about it, but it would be good to know what the
> issue is.)


I was speaking of the two-fingertip-drag that scrolls a scrollable window
(e.g. in a web browser window). It doesn't work in IDLE so it's probably an
IDLE thing. Other mouse actions seem to work correctly.

This is a FANTASTIC VPython milestone and I appreciate the hard work that
went into it. I've tried to learn Mac programming but it just makes my eyes
glaze over.

Joe

Re: [Visualpython-users] Visualpython-users Digest, Vol 31, Issue 9

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

Thanks for the clarification. Certainly two-finger scrolling isn't 
particularly relevant to Visual. Given all the other many things wrong 
with the Mac IDLE, I'm not surprised that it doesn't deal with this gesture.

Yeah, it was most definitely hard work. But interesting.

Bruce Sherwood

Joe Heafner wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 4:27 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc... 
> <mailto:Bru...@nc...>> wrote:
> 
>     Thanks for the report. A colleague with a desktop Mac and Radeon
>     X1900 also doesn't get materials like wood to display, despite his
>     drivers seeming to be up to date. Presumably you see transparent
>     objects, and local lights, but no materials.
> 
> 
> As far as I can tell, that's correct. Apple users are at Apple's mercy 
> when it comes to video driver updates.
>  
> 
>     Cmd-q quits, but I guess we forgot cmd-w.
> 
> 
> cmd-w works in an IDLE window, just not in a VPython graphics window 
> 
> 
>     What's an example of a trackpad fingertip gesture that is not
>     processed? (Not sure what we can do about it, but it would be good
>     to know what the issue is.)
> 
> 
> I was speaking of the two-fingertip-drag that scrolls a scrollable 
> window (e.g. in a web browser window). It doesn't work in IDLE so it's 
> probably an IDLE thing. Other mouse actions seem to work correctly. 
> 
> This is a FANTASTIC VPython milestone and I appreciate the hard work 
> that went into it. I've tried to learn Mac programming but it just makes 
> my eyes glaze over.
> 
> Joe
>