Re: [wxperl-users] sorting a list

[Nick J. <sk...@er...>]

boo...@at... wrote:

> while I'm being dense, If I read the documentation for 
> wxListCtrl::SortItems correctly, I can only sort on the data for the 
> list items? So how would I make a listview that's sorted on the 3rd 
> column's data, besides using SetItemData to make sure the data's equal 
> to the 3rd column?


Boo Radley, I think you are correct: you can only sort on an item's 
data. I think the only way of sorting is as you describe.

<rant>
Overall, Wx::ListCtrl is a very unpleasant and difficult to use control. 
For instance:
- Completely bizarre handling of selections. I would think it would make 
sense to have a method called GetSelection() or GetSelections() that 
returns the index of a selected element. Apparently not. You need to set 
up an event and store the index of the selected item in a global 
variable. Lovely (!). Even more bizarre is handling of *multiple* 
selections. If a user selects N items, the event handler for selection 
is called N items. So you need to store the indices of selected items as 
keys in hash. Then you need to set up a event handler for items be 
unselected and delete the index out of the hash.
- No documentation for Perl implementation of wxListItem, so I don't 
know how to iterate over the list control and use wxListItems to find 
out if any item is selected.
- When items are inserted into the list, the item inserted first appears 
at the bottom of the list. This seems to contradict logic IMHO.
- There is no SetPlData() function (as there is for the tree control), 
the only data that can be associated with an item is a long int. That 
means if you want to associate any Perl data you need to set up an array 
and store the index as an item's data.

What makes this even more bizarre is that Wx::ListBox does actually 
provide a GetSelections() method and in general seems more sane. But it 
doesn't have a report view (which you wouldn't expect from a list *box*, 
so that's OK).....
</rant>

Overall I like wxPerl and I recognise that most of the problems are 
caused by wxWindows, not the Perl interface... but I do not understand 
why Wx::ListCtrl is so awkward to use, and why it does not have a 
SetPlData() method.

- Nick