Book Image

wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook

By : Cody Precord
Book Image

wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook

By: Cody Precord

Overview of this book

<p>In today’s world of desktop applications there is a great amount of incentive to be able to develop applications that can run in more than one environment. Currently there are a handful of options available for cross platform frameworks to develop desktop applications in Python. wxPython is one such cross- platform GUI toolkit for the Python programming language. It allows Python programmers to create programs with a complete, highly functional graphical user interface, simply and easily. wxPython code style has changed quite a bit over the years, and gotten much more Pythonic. The examples you will find in this book are right up to date and reflect this change in style.<br />This cookbook provides you with the latest recipes to quickly create robust, reliable, and reusable wxPython applications. These recipes will guide you from writing simple, basic wxPython scripts all the way through complex concepts, and also feature various design approaches and techniques in wxPython.<br /><br />The book starts off by covering a variety of topics from the most basic requirements of a wxPython application to some of the more in depth details of the inner workings of the framework laying the foundation for any wxPython application. It then explains event handling, basic and advanced user interface controls, designing and layout, creating dialogs, components and extending functionality, and so on. We conclude by learning how to build and manage applications for distribution.<br />For each of the recipes, there is an introductory example, then more advanced examples, and plenty of example code to develop and manage user-friendly applications. For more experienced developers, most recipes also include additional discussion of the solution, allowing you to further customize and enhance the component.</p>

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wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook
Cody Precord
Dec, 2010 | 308 pages
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Table of Contents (19 chapters)
wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook
wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with wxPython
Getting Started with wxPython
Introduction
The application object
The main frame
Understanding the window hierarchy
Referencing controls
Using Bitmaps
Adding icons to Windows
Utilizing Stock IDs
Accessing the clipboard
Supporting drag and drop
Two-stage widget creation
Understanding inheritance limitations
2
Responding to Events
Responding to Events
Introduction
Handling events
Understanding event propagation
Handling Key events
Using UpdateUI events
Playing with the mouse
Creating custom event classes
Managing event handlers with EventStack
Validating input with validators
Handling Apple events
3
Basic Building Blocks of a User Interface
Basic Building Blocks of a User Interface
Introduction
Creating Stock Buttons
Buttons, buttons, and more buttons
Offering options with CheckBoxes
Using the TextCtrl
Providing choices with the Choice control
Adding Menus and MenuBars
Working with ToolBars
How to use PopupMenus
Grouping controls with a StaticBox
4
Advanced Building Blocks of a User Interface
Advanced Building Blocks of a User Interface
Introduction
Listing data with a ListCtrl
Browsing files with the CustomTreeCtrl
Creating a VListBox
StyledTextCtrl using lexers
Working with tray icons
Adding tabs to a Notebook
Using the FlatNotebook
Scrolling with a ScrolledPanel
Simplifying the FoldPanelBar
5
Providing Information and Alerting Users
Providing Information and Alerting Users
Introduction
Showing a MessageBox
Providing help with ToolTips
Using SuperToolTips
Displaying a BalloonTip
Creating a custom SplashScreen
Showing task progress with the Progress dialog
Creating an AboutBox
6
Retrieving Information from Users
Retrieving Information from Users
Introduction
Selecting files with a FileDialog
Searching text with a FindReplaceDialog
Getting images with ImageDialog
Using the Print dialogs
7
Window Layout and Design
Window Layout and Design
Introduction
Using a BoxSizer
Understanding proportions, flags, and borders
Laying out controls with the GridBagSizer
Standard dialog button layout
Using XML resources
Making a custom resource handler
Using the AuiFrameManager
8
Drawing to the Screen
Drawing to the Screen
Introduction
Screen drawing
Drawing shapes
Utilizing SystemSettings
Using a GraphicsContext
Drawing with RendererNative
Reducing flicker in drawing routines
9
Design Approaches and Techniques
Design Approaches and Techniques
Introduction
Creating Singletons
Implementing an observer pattern
Strategy pattern
Model View Controller
Using mixin classes
Using decorators
10
Creating Components and Extending Functionality
Creating Components and Extending Functionality
Introduction
Customizing the ArtProvider
Adding controls to a StatusBar
Making a tool window
Creating a SearchBar
Working with ListCtrl mixins
StyledTextCtrl custom highlighting
Creating a custom control
11
Using Threads and Timers to Create Responsive Interfaces
Using Threads and Timers to Create Responsive Interfaces
Introduction
Non-Blocking GUI
Understanding thread safety
Threading tools
Using Timers
Capturing output
12
Building and Managing Applications for Distribution
Building and Managing Applications for Distribution
Introduction
Working with StandardPaths
Persisting the state of the UI
Using the SingleInstanceChecker
Exception handling
Optimizing for OS X
Supporting internationalization
Distributing an application
Index
Index

Introduction

It's all too familiar and an annoying issue when you are using an application and click on some button or control only to find that the application's UI all of a sudden appears to stop responding, the busy cursor shows up, and you are left there wondering if the application is still working, or if it has locked up and needs to be forced quit. This unpleasant experience is almost always the result of a function or action that takes a considerable amount of time to return after being called. If this function or action is called on the same thread that the GUI objects live on, it will block all the code that is running in the background and that is managing the GUI, leading to this locked up and unresponsive interface.

Being able to design an application in a way that prevents this situation from being presented to its users requires additional considerations in comparison to most traditional procedural approaches. This chapter explores this problem by providing solutions, and hopefully...

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