[wxPython-dev] Some info on the ongoing SoC XRCed project

[Kevin Ollivier]

Hi Roman,

On Jul 9, 2007, at 4:31 PM, Roman Rolinsky wrote:

> On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 21:05 -0700, Kevin Ollivier wrote:
> [snip]
>> BTW, I really do like the new tool pane, I think it gives the app a
>> more modern look and gives the user a better idea of what the
>> controls will look like in the app. :-)
>
> Thanks. The only problem now is to keep the size of the tool pane  
> sane,
> so it will not get in the way of the test window and others.
> Unfortunately Toolbook does not provide a means to scroll the toolbar
> which is used for pane selection buttons, so when the size of the  
> window
> is not enough to hold all the buttons they are simply clipped away. I
> think I will need to provide at least some indicator that there are  
> more
> buttons than meets the eye. The only way to implement scrolling  
> seems to
> be removing some buttons from the toolbar (maybe hiding will do, I
> didn't try yet). I also plan to make specific tool panes for wxMAC and
> wxMSW and make them scalable by selecting a factor from the
> application's preference dialog.

Have you tried using wx.Listbook and not specifying any labels? This  
seems to at least allow scrolling.

>> Nice! I'll be looking forward to that, so I can add SizedControls and
>> wxWebKit in there. (The latter will have to be able to install itself
>> into XRCed when the user installs the control, I imagine that would
>> be possible?)
>
> You mean to initialize C++ XML handlers? This is possible using ctypes
> module which can load a function from a shared library. AFAIK only the
> interface to C functions is portable, so a plugin must provide an  
> extern
> "C" function without arguments and the name of this function is made
> known to XRCed when registering the component. The function is called
> every time the test window is created. It should add XML handlers  
> to the
> resource object returned by XmlResource::Get(). Another approach is to
> provide a wrapper module similar to wxPython wrappers. It must be
> generated using a patched SWIG, and then the module is imported  
> like any
> other python modules.
>
> Defining pure-wxPython component plugins is very easy, once there is a
> working XmlHandler class. It can be done using a python module  
> imported
> by XRCed or by using XML manifest file which can be edited using XRCed
> (this is already working but I need to make some documentation).
>
> Normally XmlHandler classes should be in some separate modules, not
> necessary in XRCed/plugins, just available for importing by component
> plugin modules.

To be honest, I'm still new to XRC so some of this went a bit over my  
head. ;-) However, from your and Robin's comments, I think I can say  
that what I want to do for now is create a wxPython component using  
the webview.py module API, rather than mucking with things at the C++  
level.

>>> The tool panel is inspired by the OSX Interface Builder, it's just a
>>> wxToolbook with wxPanels and wxBitmapButtons. I'm planning to try
>>> to use
>>> AUI to make all panels docking in the future.
>>>
>>> The test window is a little different too, it is 'persistent' for
>>> non-top-level controls, so should not flicker and steal focus  
>>> from the
>>> main window. Another new feature is the possibility to test  
>>> individual
>>> interface elements.
>>
>> Also nice! :-) BTW, I was wondering, how hard would it be to drag and
>> drop controls into the test window? I think it would be a very nice
>> feature to have.
>
> You may check the "Recent Changes" document for wxPython 2.8.4 ;)

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get it to work using the XRCed found  
in the 2.8.4 demo on OS X or on my Windows box... :-/ Can you give me  
a series of steps that should work to make sure I'm not doing  
something wrong?

>> I also like the idea of the AUI-style panes. But if it's not too much
>> trouble, please make the panes in a way that you could switch to
>> another docking framework later. (May not be a big deal since you're
>> already taking an MVP-centric design, of course.) I'm still planning
>> to finish my Mac-friendly docking framework that can remember pane
>> info even when its undocked, and eventually once it's complete I'd
>> like to have XRCed using it.
>
> Ok, no problem. I was going to provide an option to turn off AUI
> completely also.

Cool, thanks!

Kevin

>>> Auto-refreshing and highlighting are not yet
>>> refactored, neither are Locate and code generation commands.
>>>
>>> The standard component plug-ins are defined using plugins/core.py
>>> file.
>>> I will provide a working example of a custom component plug-in soon.
>>
>> Thanks for all your work on this, it looks very exciting. :-)
>>
>> Kevin
>
> Regards,
>
> Roman
>
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