[Edu-sig] Learn to Program in Ten Years

[Kirby Urner]

> As to wxPython, I'm afraid it just failed a test of some importance to
> me.  VPython does not run interactively from PyShell or PyCrust.  It
> just hangs.  It does run interactively from the native prompt and from
> the Idle prompt.
> 

Hence my cc to the wxpython dev list, mentioning VPython, and the "would be
nice" prospect of integrating it more effectively.

> Kirby:
> 
> I don't know it Patrick listens in here anymomre.  You might want to
> make the wxPython-dev folks aware of this issue.  I wonder if it related
> to the fact that wxPython *is* running over GTK and VPython is a GTK
> window.  Anywhere it's a bit disappointing.
> 
> Art
> 

Probably it's a deeper issue than Patrick tweaking his shell, which sits on
top of the wx library.  I think getting VPython to show up in a wxWidget (a
window), and having mouse clicks go from VPython objects to the wx event
loop somehow, would require a lot of digging, a lot of legwork.  

Or maybe the goal isn't to handle VPython window events (let VPython handle
its own events), but merely to support the orderly creation and destruction
of a VPython window, plus an ability to send wx events *into* VPython via
its native API (e.g. press a button on a wx frame, and watch every sphere in
a VPython window turn blue -- or we could have zoom-in/zoom-out buttons).

I don't have the expertise to code these things.  However, the fact that
Vpython runs on Windows, Mac and Linux would make it philosophically
consistent with the wxWidgets aim.  I can well imagine a VPython demo, right
near the OpenGL demo.

I don't know if the right way to handle integration with VPython is at the
C++ level, within wx, or at the wxPython level, or both.  All I know is
Pygeo on wxPython would probably be really cool, interface-wise.  And
keeping the VPython asset, vs. trying to redo it all in OpenGL, would likely
save many coder-years of time.

Kirby