ANNOUNCE: Pmw megawidgets 0.8.5

[Greg McFarlane]

                        Pmw megawidgets

                           Pmw.0.8.5

    * Python 2.0 release
    * Pmw moved to SourceForge

    Pmw new home:   http://pmw.sourceforge.net/
    Pmw maintainer: Greg McFarlane <gregm@iname.com>


A new release of Pmw is out.  This is mainly a bug fix release
for python 2.0, fixing a problem with Pmw.Counter caused by a
change in the ascii representation of a long (no 'L').

Also, the home for Pmw development has moved to SourceForge.
The Pmw sources and documentation are under CVS control and
releases can be downloaded from there.

I would like to thank Graham Dumpleton for allowing Pmw to
be hosted at his web site for so long.  I hope SourceForge
will match the stability of Pmw's old site.

Other changes in this release are:

  - Minor fixes to tests for Tk 8.3.

  - Fixed bug in Pmw.ScrolledFrame when given invalid flex options.

  - Added pmw2 font scheme, since the font used for balloon text with
    pmw1 is too small on Linux.

  - Removed syntax coloring from code window in demos.  It did not
    look good and the pattern matching was not always correct.

  - Changed font size used for demos to 12 for Unix, since 14 looked
    too big under Linux.

For more information on Pmw, see the (new) home page at
  http://pmw.sourceforge.net/

You can fetch the entire distribution from
  http://download.sourceforge.net/pmw/Pmw.0.8.5.tar.gz

If you have any comments, enhancements or new contributions, please
contact me (gregm@iname.com).

=====================================================================

What is Pmw?

    Pmw is a GUI toolkit for building high-level compound widgets in
    Python using the Tkinter module.  These compound widgets, called
    'megawidgets', are constructed using other Tkinter widgets or Pmw
    megawidgets as component parts.  It promotes consistent look and
    feel within and between graphical applications, is highly
    configurable and is easy to use.

    Pmw consists of:

        - A few base classes, providing a foundation for building
          megawidgets.

        - A library of flexible and extensible megawidgets built on
          the base classes, such as buttonboxes, notebooks,  
          comboboxes, selection widgets, paned widgets, scrolled
          widgets and dialog windows.

        - A lazy importer/dynamic loader which is automatically
          invoked when Pmw is first imported.  This gives unified
          access to all Pmw classes and functions through the Pmw.
          prefix.  It also speeds up module loading time by only
          importing Pmw sub-modules when needed.

        - Reference documentation, consisting of complete listings of
          megawidget options, methods and components.  Full
          descriptions are also available for all the base classes and
          several other megawidget classes.  Descriptions of the other
          megawidgets will be released soon.

        - A test framework and tests for Pmw megawidgets.

        - A slick demonstration of the megawidgets.

        - An interface to the BLT busy, graph and vector commands.

    The interface to Pmw megawidgets is similar to basic Tk widgets,
    so it is easy for developers to include both megawidgets and basic
    Tk widgets in their graphical applications.  In addition, Pmw
    megawidgets may themselves be extended, using either inheritance
    or composition.

    The use of the Pmw megawidgets replaces common widget combinations
    with higher level abstractions.  This simplifies code, making it
    more readable and maintainable.  The ability to extend Pmw
    megawidgets enables developers to create new megawidgets based on
    previous work.

-- 
Greg McFarlane  Really Good Software Pty Ltd  Sydney Australia  gregm@iname.com