Wax

Report written by LionKimbro, on 2003-09-20. Please correct errors & omissions. I have not yet downloaded and applied Wax.

Updated a little by Joanna on 13 November 2004. I distribute a project (http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~jjb/web/pyposh.html) one of my students used wax in.

When/if Wax has more web presence, please completely rewrite this page.

Contents

Project Summary

Blog: http://zephyrfalcon.org/weblog/arch_Wax.html
Static Information: http://zephyrfalcon.org/labs/dope_on_wax.html
Wiki: http://zephyrfalcon.org/moin.cgi
Downloads: http://zephyrfalcon.org/download/
Primer: http://zephyrfalcon.org/labs/wax_primer.html

Wax is a friendly layer atop wxPython.

RobinDunn is trying to keep wxPython close to wxWindows, but believes there is room for a layer on top, to make wxPython more python-ic.

Wax appears to be trying to fit that role.

Project Author

Name: HansNowak
Blog: http://zephyrfalcon.org/weblog/index.html

Blog has moved here: http://zephyrfalcon.org/weblog2/

Status

As of 2003-09-20 (with Nov 04 updates):

Wax does not appear to be documented, however, there are a lot of sample snips on the blog.

Judging by the blog, the author seems to have worked on Wax in May (5), August (8), and September (9), of 2003, indicating continuing development. The downloads page actually has more versions (and more recent versions) than the blog indicates. Current most recent is September 2004. Blog indicates development is to keep up with new versions of wxPython.

KevinAltis has posted to the blog, indicating that there's some awareness in the wxPython community of wax. However, this is the first entry on this wiki about it. There are no entries in the wxPython-users mailing list to date about it either.

Sample Code

Copied from part 1 of the Wax Primer:

   1 from wax import *
   2 
   3 FIXED_FONT = Font('Courier New', 10)
   4 
   5 class MainFrame(Frame):
   6     
   7     def Body(self):
   8         self.filename = None
   9         self.CreateMenu()
  10         self.textbox = TextBox(self, multiline=1, wrap=0)
  11         self.textbox.SetFont(FIXED_FONT)
  12         self.AddComponent(self.textbox)
  13         
  14     def CreateMenu(self):
  15         menubar = MenuBar()
  16         
  17         menu1 = Menu(self)
  18         menu1.Append("&New", self.New, "Create a new file")
  19         menu1.Append("&Open", self.Open, "Open a file")
  20         menu1.Append("&Save", self.Save, "Save a file")
  21         
  22         menubar.Append(menu1, "&File")
  23         
  24         self.SetMenuBar(menubar)
  25         
  26     def New(self, event):
  27         self.textbox.Clear()
  28         self.filename = None
  29     
  30     def Open(self, event):
  31         dlg = FileDialog(self, open=1)
  32         try:
  33             result = dlg.ShowModal()
  34             if result == 'ok':
  35                 filename = dlg.GetPaths()[0]
  36                 self._OpenFile(filename)
  37         finally:
  38             dlg.Destroy()
  39             
  40     def _OpenFile(self, filename):
  41         self.filename = filename
  42         f = open(filename, 'r')
  43         data = f.read()
  44         f.close()
  45         self.textbox.Clear()
  46         self.textbox.AppendText(data)
  47     
  48     def Save(self, event):
  49         if self.filename:
  50             self._SaveFile(self.filename)
  51         else:
  52             dlg = FileDialog(self, save=1)
  53             try:
  54                 result = dlg.ShowModal()
  55                 if result == 'ok':
  56                     filename = dlg.GetPaths()[0]
  57                     self.filename = filename
  58                     self._SaveFile(filename)
  59             finally:
  60                 dlg.Destroy()
  61                 
  62     def _SaveFile(self, filename):
  63         f = open(filename, 'w')
  64         f.write(self.textbox.GetValue())
  65         f.close()
  66     
  67 app = Application(MainFrame, title="A simple editor")
  68 app.Run()