Q: As of 2017+ what is the state of affairs ?
A: Adapting 2015 Boa to wxPy 4.0 takes one day. The py2 into py3 conversion looks promising and doable also.
However, Monkey Studio (The Py part of it) it just much more powerful than Boa and everybody is flooding to Monkey now. Boa's and wxWidget's (widget inspector) debug capabilities, however, are far superior to what you get from Monkey, if anything. Also it is very easy to combine Boa (or parts of its source) and Monkey for the ultimate Py feel. Follow the regular mailing list via web for speedyness.
Q: I'm stuck. Where can I go for help?
A: There are several resources, depending on the type of problem.
- - Boa related issues:
The Boa Constructor mailing list. Details on subscribing and a searchable archive can be found at http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=1909. There are also forums about Boa Constructor at Source Forge forums page http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=1909. Bug reports can be posted to the mailing list or to the Source Forge Tracker http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=1909.
The http://www.wxpython.org web-site has resources listed on the left-hand menu pane. There is a mailing list http://lists.wxwindows.org/mailman/listinfo/wxpython-users.
Besides the online documentation, the http://www.python.org web-site has a nice search engine for searching for Python related items.
Q: I would like to add separators to my menus, but there doesn't seem be any way to do this in the designer. How is it done?
A: The recommended method is to put a menu entry wherever a separator should be. Edit the produced code and change "id" to wxID_SEPARATOR and "kind" to wxITEM_SEPARATOR for the line that should be the separator. Boa will not remove known wxPython attributes.
Q: I noticed that on the "New" Palette tab there is a wxFramePanel. What is it used for?
A: There is an example included in the Advanced Boa examples, in the Boa directory (Examples\advanced\FramePanels). Also search the Boa help, as there is mention of _custom_classes and Frame Panels on the "Working with generated source code" page.
- A typical application for the wxFramePanel is a tabbed notebook. Each tab holds a customized wxFramePanel, instead of a regular wxPanel. This allows the grouping of the code for each of the notebook tabs into separate wxFramePanel files. To use the "wxFramePanels", create a project, consisting of a notebook with two tabs, covering the entire main frame(wxFrame1). On each tab of the new notebook, add a wxPanel from the Boa Containers/Layout Palette tab. Post the new frame and save the wxFrame1 file. Click on the "New" tab of the Boa Palette window and add and design the "wxFramePanels" to be used, on the project, one for each notebook panel(wxPanel1 and wxPanel2). Save the files and add them to the "wxApp1" application (Right click in the wxApp1-Application notebook panel. Select add, then select the desired file(s)(wxPanel1 and wxPanel2)). In the wxFrame1 file, add "from" imports for both panels (near the top of the file):
- from wxPanel1 import wxPanel1 from wxPanel2 import wxPanel2
- _custom_classes = {'wxPanel': ['wxPanel1', 'wxPanel2']}
Save the frame and then edit the frame in the designer. Select the first notebook tab then click on the notebook "panel". This will select the previously placed wxPanel in the Boa Inspector. In the Boa Inspector window, click on the "Constr" tab. Click on the right hand column of the "Class" row. A drop down arrow should appear. Click on the arrow to reveal the new "custom" FramePanel classes "wxPanel1" and "wxPanel2". Select the desired panel for this notebook tab. Repeat these steps for the second notebook tab. Post the changes. When the application is run, the notebook panels should be filled with the wxFramePanels previously designed (in their own files!).
Q: I've installed the Python help, but it is not accessable from the icon. Why doesn't it work?
A: There was a typo in Explorer.*.cfg:
- 'python/pythonhelp.hhp', should be 'python/python.hhp', This has been updated in CVS, but *.cfg files aren't updated automatically if your resource config directory is not the Boa root (like $HOME/.boa). So update manually if needed.
Q: I get the message "global name 'wx' not defined"
A: As of Jul 2004, Boa Constructor is not compatible with wxPython 2.5.x. Until this is fixed you'll need to revert to wxPython 2.4.2.4, which can be found at the wxPython download page.
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