WYSIWYG wxPython "IDE"....?

[Simon John]

I'm writing my 2nd large wxPython program, and after the problems I
found doing the first's layout in code, I'd like to look at using a
'WYSIWYG' IDE, like VisualStudio does for MFC.

I've tried a few that I found, wxGlade is probably the best, although
it seems to be not 100% WYSIWYG (like the widgets in the preview are
not much like the final program), wxDesigner has a horrid GUI for a GUI
designer! VisualWX gave me the 'now what?' feeling when I started a new
project.....

I find the sizer layout thing is what's holding these programs back, is
there another wxWidgets layout system, so that I could just drag'n'drop
widgets wherever I want in a window, more like Qt or MFC?

I'd like to just put a TextCtrl with a few buttons underneath it
without having to create two boxsizers or a gridsizer!

I'd like to create something like the main XMMS (or Winamp) window:

http://xmms.org/files/Skins/images/winamp_x_xmms.png

But that would be a 3-way vertical sizer, a 2-way horizontal and a
2-way vertical at least just for the main (top left) window.

 

[M.E.Farmer]

Yes you can use absolute positioning.
You do not need sizers ( but they are very nice )
Most all the widgets have a pos keyword in there constructor. Just use
them.

M.E.Farmer

 

[Tim Hoffman]

Have you tried Boa Constructor ?

http://boa-constructor.sourceforge.net/

 

[Simon John]

Have you tried Boa Constructor ?

http://boa-constructor.sourceforge.net/

Yeah, I was never very impressed with it either. The current version
doesn't seem to work with wxPython 2.5.3.1 though....

I guess there isn't a GUI builder that does what I want, back to the
manual way of doing things I guess, unless I use Qt for this project
maybe, and keep it to myself (due to the stupid Qt licensing).

 

[Brent W. Hughes]

I've also tried Boa Constructor a couple of times and keep having problems
using it. So I've got it stuck in the back of my mind for when it finally
becomes ready for prime time. (One of the problems was that the tutorial
didn't quite match the program.) I really like the concept. It's a lot
like Delphi, and I LOVE Delphi. So one of these days I hope to love Boa
Constructor for when I need to write GUI apps.

Brent

 

[Luis M. Gonzalez]

Try PythonCard.
Very simple, very easy and based on wxPython.

 

[Uwe Grauer]

Yeah, I was never very impressed with it either. The current version
doesn't seem to work with wxPython 2.5.3.1 though....

I guess there isn't a GUI builder that does what I want, back to the
manual way of doing things I guess, unless I use Qt for this project
maybe, and keep it to myself (due to the stupid Qt licensing).

Most People don't realize, that they have to use the cvs-version
instead.
For wxPython 2.5.x there is no released version of boa.
Boa 0.4 is in the works now for 2.5.x.
For wxPython 2.4 please use Boa 0.31

Hope this helps,
Uwe

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Most People don't realize, that they have to use the cvs-version
instead.

It's rather that most people prefer to use the latest stable version,
since stuff under CVS is still under development. Does someone know
why the Boa people didn't extract a newer, stable version from CVS?

To the OP: This topic comes up about every week, and the conclusion I
drew after taking a look, is that Python is not a good solution to
build GUI apps, although it's an excellent command-line, text
scripting tool.

To me, the very fact that the only solution if you don't want to carry
a multi-megabyte widget set with you (either wxWidgets or QT is to go
the MFC way (which a lot of C developers seem to hate) through
PyWin32, and the absence of a really good GUI builder like VB or
Delphi shows that it's just not a good solution to build big GUI apps,
although good enough for smaller apps like BitTorrent etc. Sad, but
true. I guess it just shows that building a GUI development tool like
those two takes quite a lot of work, hence money, but there doesn't
seem to be a demand high enough to warrant this venture.

My conclusion: If you want to write GUI apps that require a very rich
interface while keeping the installer small (and raw performance is
important), Python is currently not a good solution. YMMV

Luke.

 

[Jussi Jumppanen]

To me, the very fact that the only solution if you don't want
to carry a multi-megabyte widget set with you (either wxWidgets
or QT is to go the MFC way (which a lot of C developers seem
to hate) through

Have you ever tried to use MFC in anything other than a
simple application?

MFC is nothing more than a poorly designed C++ layer over the
Windows Win32 API. One of it's greatest contributions to the
world of software development is it clearly demonstrates how
NOT to design a C++ application framework.

At least wxWidgets does offer an OOP look and feel, which is
no simple task given that wxWidgets is also a multi-platform
application framework.

Add to this the fact that MFC is no longer supported by
Microsoft (ie there will be no ew version or bug fixes for
future versions of Windows) and the choice is simple. I
would definitely not be choosing MFC.

Jussi Jumppanen
Author of: Zeus for Windows (New version 3.93 out now)
"The C/C++, Cobol, Java, HTML, Python, PHP, Perl programmer's editor"
Home Page: http://www.zeusedit.com

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Have you ever tried to use MFC in anything other than a
simple application?

.... which is why I said that the alternative of using PyWin32 didn't
sound like a lot of fun

Luke.

 

[Simon John]

With the news of a GPL Qt4 for Windows, I decided to go with PyQt:

http://mats.imk.fraunhofer.de/pipermail/pykde/2005-February/009527.html

I just knocked up my application (GUI, backend is still in progress)
using QtDesigner in about 5 minutes, and it's layout is just how I want
it!

 

[Francis Girard]

Le mardi 8 Février 2005 00:56, Simon John a écrit :

With the news of a GPL Qt4 for Windows, I decided to go with PyQt:

http://mats.imk.fraunhofer.de/pipermail/pykde/2005-February/009527.html

I just knocked up my application (GUI, backend is still in progress)
using QtDesigner in about 5 minutes, and it's layout is just how I want
it!

Exactly the same for me. Qt is just a pure marvel. I hope this will not kill
wx though. We need diversity. It might very well be that wx gpl on windows
was one of the factor that made Troll decide to do the same with Qt.

Francis Girard

 

[Jim Smith]

I'm writing my 2nd large wxPython program, and after the problems I
found doing the first's layout in code, I'd like to look at using a
'WYSIWYG' IDE, like VisualStudio does for MFC.

I've tried a few that I found, wxGlade is probably the best, although
it seems to be not 100% WYSIWYG (like the widgets in the preview are
not much like the final program), wxDesigner has a horrid GUI for a GUI
designer! VisualWX gave me the 'now what?' feeling when I started a new
project.....

I find the sizer layout thing is what's holding these programs back, is
there another wxWidgets layout system, so that I could just drag'n'drop
widgets wherever I want in a window, more like Qt or MFC?

I'd like to just put a TextCtrl with a few buttons underneath it
without having to create two boxsizers or a gridsizer!

I'd like to create something like the main XMMS (or Winamp) window:

http://xmms.org/files/Skins/images/winamp_x_xmms.png

But that would be a 3-way vertical sizer, a 2-way horizontal and a
2-way vertical at least just for the main (top left) window.

I have tried all the GUI tools for wx and I think wxDesigner is the
best. It is commercial, but worth it.

http://www.roebling.de/