August 19, 2004
PythonCard 0.8
PythonCard is a GUI construction kit for building cross-platform desktop applications on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Release 0.8 includes over 50 sample applications and tools to help users build applications in Python, including codeEditor, findfiles, and resourceEditor (layout editor). A list of changes since release 0.7.3.1 is available in the changelog file. New samples include ataxx, lsystem, moderator, montyhall, mp3player, reversi, twistedEchoClient. There is also an experimental reStructuredText and HTML editor in the codeEditor directory called restEditor.py.
PythonCard requires Python 2.3 or later and wxPython 2.5.2.7 or later.
You can download the latest release at:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19015
The eagle eyed will notice that the package name (at SourceForge) has changed. This is the first step on the path to the mythical 1.0 release. Please be sure to look at the migration_guide.txt file in the docs directory if you are upgrading from a previous release. Since the package name has changed, you can continue to use the older PythonCardPrototype package simultaneously with the new PythonCard package, but you must upgrade to wxPython 2.5.2.7.
All the information you need about PythonCard can be found on the project web page at: http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/
The installation instructions and walkthroughs are available on the main documentation page: http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/documentation.html
For a list of most of the samples that have been built with PythonCard and screenshots of them in action go to: http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/samples/samples.html
The kind people at SourceForge host the project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pythoncard/
If you want to get involved the main contact point is the Mailing list: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pythoncard-users
Additional Notes:
Remember to backup or just delete your old PythonCard directory before installing a new version, so that the old files aren't still in the package directory. If you installed a previous version of PythonCard on Windows using the binary installer, then you should be able to remove the old package via the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel.
The distutils installer will put the framework, components, docs, samples, and tools in Lib\site-packages or your Python directory (typically C:\Python23). Of course, on Linux and Mac OS X that path will be slightly different and have forward slashes.
Windows users should get a PythonCard menu in the Start->Programs menu with links to the documentation, samples, codeEditor, findfiles, and resourceEditor.
The tools and most of the samples will now keep their config and data file info in the "pythoncard_config" directory created by the framework. On Unix, the directory will be ~/pythoncard_config. On Windows, the directory varies as described in the following post:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/PythonCard/1496793
So, if you run a PythonCard app with any of the runtime tools and select "Save Configuration" from the "Debug" menu, the window positions and sizes of your runtime windows (Shell, Message Watcher, etc.) will be saved in "pythoncard_config/pythoncard_config.txt" not the PythonCard directory. Likewise, when you change the text style used by the codeEditor via the "Styles..." menu item under the "Format" menu, the modification will be saved in "pythoncard_config/stc-styles.cfg"
Posted by Andy Todd at August 19, 2004 07:14 PM