🌐 Mailman 3 April 2000 - Pythonmac-SIG - python.org

Problems with Tkinter
by DrBHorow＠aol.com April 10, 2000

April 10, 2000

I'm a physician and love to program in my spare time. I've had alot of experience programming in Tcl/Tk and just started learning Python, particularly to explore Tkinter. I'm trying a simple script like this: from Tkinter import * root = Tk() button = Button(root, text = "Test") button.pack() root.mainloop() Everything works ok on the Tk end of things. The toplevel window appears with a button and accepts clicks. The problem I'm having is that as soon as Python interprets mainloop(), Tk takes over the menubar and all event handling. I can't reliably interrupt mainloop. Even when I do interrupt it (sometimes by typing), the original menubar in the Python interpreter is not restored. Windows do not refresh properly. I usually have to quit Python to the Finder (by hitting command-option-shift-esc). I'm running a G3 powerbook/OS 8.1 or 8.6, Tcl/Tk v8.0, Python v1.5.2. Any help would be much appreciated. Bob Horowitz drbhorow(a)aol.com

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MacPython 1.6a1 available
by Jack Jansen April 9, 2000

April 9, 2000

Folks, an installer for Python 1.6a1 is available, you can find it at ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/jack/python/mac/python16a1.bin . I expect this installer to be short-lived (a2 is imminent), but I wanted to get it out so people could test some of the new features and the new installer (based on what Just did, but using the full Installer Vise, and I had to hack it up quickly so there may be bugs. I've had to abort the installer once at the very end, but everything appeared fine after that). Also, please let me know which Contributed software I've forgotten to include, I'm sure there are a few. And contributors: also please check whether your stuff is still relevant if it is included. Here's the bad news about this version: - PPC only. The framework for 68k builds is still there, however, so I may try to do 68k too, time permitting, otherwise someone else can pick it up. - No Tkinter. Hopefully int he next alfa. The good news: - Unicode support (completely untested on the Mac). - Thread support (very lightly tested). - Navigation, Appearance and Drag support. To use Navigation in stead of the old dialogs standard you'll have to do import macfsn macfsn.install() at the beginning of your code and all your macfs calls will be revectored. -- Jack Jansen | ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com | ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++ www.oratrix.nl/~jack | see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm

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I need MacPython screenshots!
by Matheus Rodrigues April 9, 2000

April 9, 2000

Hello everyone, I need some screenshots of a Macintosh running MacPython. If possible I would like to receive one screenshot of the MacPython Installation too. The faster you can provide some material to me the more I thank you. Please send the files (zipped) to my email as we dont want to create huge traffic in the list. It's not necessary to crop the images. btw, I dont need the images that were used in Python books because those I already have. Thank you Matheus ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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Re: [Pythonmac-SIG] WaitNextEvent and OS9
by Jack Jansen April 8, 2000

April 8, 2000

I found the problem, because the article Jim referred to tickled a few braincells: setting the "allow processor sleep" flag in the "Energy" control panel causes it. (the exact names are translated from dutch here). I would suggest anyone using OS9 to quickly disable that option. I set it sort-of unthinking, as I thought it would have to do with reducing power consuption during sleep, but apparently it has to do with reducing power during normal operation. The help balloon also wasn't all that helpful:-( -- Jack Jansen | ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com | ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++ www.oratrix.nl/~jack | see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm

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WaitNextEvent and OS9
by Jack Jansen April 8, 2000

April 8, 2000

Maybe someone can help me with the following: under OS9 I'm noticing that WaitNextEvent(), even with a zero timeout, will take more and more time before returning, unless you frantically wriggle the mouse. I noticed this while putting GUSI2 in Python, but some careful testing of old and new Pythons on OS8 and OS9 showed that this is probably OS9 behaviour. I think this might be some "intelligent" behaviour of MacOS (programs that keep calling WaitNextEvent with low timeout values without getting any events have the cpu taken away from them), but with Python calling WNE in the mainloop this is rather bothersome behaviour. Does anyone know whether this guesswork is correct and, if so, if there's anything I can do about it? -- Jack Jansen | ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com | ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++ www.oratrix.nl/~jack | see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm

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Re: [Pythonmac-SIG] Re: How well does Python really work on the Mac?
by Jack Jansen April 8, 2000

April 8, 2000

On the mathematical side of your question: note that the LLNL Numeric package for Python is included in the standard installation. Depending on which functionality you need your math routines may already be in there... -- Jack Jansen | ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com | ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++ www.oratrix.nl/~jack | see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm

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Re: [Pythonmac-SIG] importing from nested folders?
by Chris Jacobson April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

On 4/7/00 11:00 AM, pythonmac-sig-request(a)python.org (pythonmac-sig-request(a)python.org) stated: >The quick answer is "you can't". Actually, you can, if said folder is a subfulder of an existing path, and contains an __init__.py (look at :Lib:test:). Said folder acts as a sort of module initialied by __init__.py - Chris Jacobson

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Thanks... for the replies on fonts...
by A.R. Goldman April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

I knew it had to be simple, although I'm a bit embarrassed that it was that simple... thanks for your help... Hopefully, I'll get to some more challenging questions soon... Rick

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Re: How well does Python really work on the Mac?
by Chris Barker April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

Lou, While your title implies questions about Python on the Mac, it seems most of your questions are really about Python itself. First of all, I am just starting to embark on using Python in a similar manner, however I would like my work to be cross platform for Linux, Mac and Windows. I think Python makes that easier. than most languages/environments. As far as using Python on the Mac for "RAD/experimental tool for numerical programming and scientific work", the real shortcoming is the lack of a scientific plotting package. All the ones that exist are really links to varios plotting packages that araen't available on the Mac. (Dislin, gnuplot, yorick, etc.). The one exception to this is the Piddle/graphite combination. Piddle (Python Interactive Drawing, Does Little Else) is an output-device independent drawing api for python. It allows you to do basic drawing stuff (points, lines polygons, text, etc) the same why for a variety of output modes, including postscriipt, pdf, Apple Quick Draw, tk, wxPython, etc.) Graphite is a graphing package based on PIDDLE, developed by Joe and Michele (I think I got her name right) Strout et. al. I'm not sure about PIDDLE, but development on Graphite seems to have halted development. It's a pretty good start, however. I think you can find it on sourceforge. (http://Graphite.sourceforge.net/) Hey! I hjust took a look, and it looks like there is a new project coordinator, yippie! So, if you need to do any scientific plotting, you will need to put some work into developing the tools as well. I'm intending to do this myself. Now, onto your other questions: >I do have some reservations though and it seems to me that Python use is a >bit convoluted in that to use something like Numerical Recipes I have to >fire up my C compiler (codewarrior - very nice), write an interface for the >Python module to use the special routine (say eigenvalue function), make a >C-module (can CW do this?), make it available to Python. I'm not sure Python is any more convoluted for connecting to another language than anything else, but of course it is more convoluted that doing everything in one language. The saving graces: 1) Once you create a module from a set of C routines, they are very easy to use, and you are likely to use the same routines over and over again, and you only have to create the module once. 2) chances are good that someone else has already done it for a lot of what you will need to do. see Numpy for linear algebra, random numbers, FFT, etc, and keep an eye on the newsgroups for others. A least a couple of people have announced projects to add enough to Python to create a MATLAB-like environment. I'm not sure how those projects are coming along, but I'm sure people hav domne some good stuff. 3) You can use a tool to automatically generate your interface code. Check out SWIG (www.swig.org) There is a Mac version available at: http://alldunn.com/wxPython/dist/others/ If you don't need it to be cross platform, there is another tool for doing it on the Mac that I don't remember the name of. I'm sure someone on this list will let you know. >this "gotcha" keeps me worrying that the conneciton to standard numerical >routines in C or those I would write in C for speed would be fragile -- we >are depending on someone's writing the library for those Py_ calls right? The Py_ calls are already written, and you can be sure they will be maintained, as the extensability of Python is one of it's major features. Note: In the official Python Docs, in the "Extending and Embedding" docs, there are sections on Building C and C++ extensions on Unix and on Windows. It would be great if there was one there for the Mac. I'll be keeping notes as I work on it, perhaps between all of us on this group, we can get it written. >Sorry for being so worrisome, but learning a new language is a big >investment. I'm really hoping for good answers 'cause I'd love to take the >plunge. I understand. In some ways Python isn't quite ready to do this sort of thing "out of the box", but it has major potential, and I don't see a better option in free software. Good luck, and keep in touch with me if you do go for it, I'd love us to share our experiences. -Chris -- Christopher Barker, Ph.D. cbarker(a)jps.net --- --- --- http://www.jps.net/cbarker -----@@ -----@@ -----@@ ------@@@ ------@@@ ------@@@ Water Resources Engineering ------ @ ------ @ ------ @ Coastal and Fluvial Hydrodynamics ------- --------- -------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Fonts...
by A.R. Goldman April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

Greetings: I have recently joined the world of Python, and have even more recently joined the world of Mac (and am oh so happy to say good-bye to my PC...) but I have discovered one slight difficulty with the PythonMac IDE. The fonts are small, and I have been unable to find a way to increase either the interactive window, or the text editor fonts. I'm a bit near-sighted, and prefer larger fonts if I'm working on a project for any length of time... I realize that this question is quite elementary; but if anyone on the list could point out what I'm no doubt missing, I'd be most grateful... Many thanks... Rick

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