phoenix_title wx.lib.infoframe

infoframe.py Released under wxWindows license etc.

This is a fairly rudimentary, but slightly fancier than wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow (on which it’s based; thanks Robin), version of the same sort of thing: a file-like class called wxInformationalMessagesFrame. This window also has a status bar with a couple of buttons for controlling the echoing of all output to a file with a randomly-chosen filename…

The class behaves similarly to wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow in that (at least by default) the frame does not appear until written to, but is somewhat different in that, either under programmatic (the DisableOutput method) or user (the frame’s close button, it’s status bar’s “Dismiss” button, or a “Disable output” item of some menu, perhaps of some other frame), the frame will be destroyed, an associated file closed, and writing to it will then do nothing. This can be reversed: either under programmatic (the EnableOutput method) or user (an “Enable output” item of some menu), a new frame will be opened,And an associated file (with a “randomly”selected filename) opened for writing [to which all subsequent displayed messages will be echoed].

Please note that, like wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow, the instance is not itself a subclass of wxWindow: when the window is open (and ONLY then), it’s “frame” attribute is the actual instance of wFrame…

Typical usage:

from wx.lib.infoframe import *
... # ... modify your wxApp as follows:
class myApp(wxApp):
    outputWindowClass = PyInformationalMessagesFrame
    # ...

If you’re running on Linux, you’ll also have to supply an argument 1 to your constructor of myApp to redirect stdout/stderr to this window (it’s done automatically for you on Windows).

If you don’t want to redirect stdout/stderr, but use the class directly: do it this way:

InformationalMessagesFrame = PyInformationalMessagesFrame(                                                 options_from_progname,  # (default = "")
                                            txt),                   # (default = "informational messages")

#^^^^ early in the program
# ...

InformationalMessagesFrame(list_of_items)

# where list_of_items:
#
# comma-separated list of items to display.
# Note that these will never be separated by spaces as they may
# be when used in the Python 'print' command

The latter statement, of course, may be repeated arbitrarily often. The window will not appear until it is written to, and it may be manually closed by the user, after which it will reappear again until written to… Also note that all output is echoed to a file with a randomly-generated name [see the mktemp module in the standard library], in the directory given as the ‘dir’ keyword argument to the InformationalMessagesFrame constructor [which has a default value of ‘.’), or set via the method SetOutputDirectory… This file will be closed with the window–a new one will be created [by default] upon each subsequent reopening.

Please also note the methods EnableOutput and DisableOutput, and the possible arguments for the constructor in the code below… (* TO DO: explain this here…*) Neither of these methods need be used at all, and in this case the frame will only be displayed once it has been written to, like wxPyOnDemandOutputWindow.

The former, EnableOutput, displays the frame with an introductory message, opens a random file to which future displayed output also goes (unless the nofile attribute is present), and sets the __debug__ variable of each module to 1 (unless the no __debug__ attribute is present]. This is so that you can say, in any module whatsoever:

if __debug__:
    InformationalMessagesFrame("... with lots of %<Character> constructs"
                                % TUPLE)

without worrying about the overhead of evaluating the arguments, and calling the wxInformationalMessagesFrame instance, in the case where debugging is not turned on. (This won’t happen if the instance has an attribute no__debug__; you can arrange this by sub-classing…)

“Debug mode” can also be turned on by selecting the item-“Enable output” from the “Debug” menu [the default–see the optional arguments to the SetOtherMenuBar method] of a frame which has been either passed appropriately to the constructor of the wxInformationalMessagesFrame (see the code), or set via the SetOtherMenuBar method thereof. This also writes an empty string to the instance, meaning that the frame will open (unless DisablOutput has been called) with an appropriate introductory message (which will vary according to whether the instance/class has the “no __debug__” attribute)^ I have found this to be an extremely useful tool, in lieu of a full wxPython debugger…

Following this, the menu item is also disabled, and an item “Disable output” (again, by default) is enabled. Note that these need not be done: e.g., you don’t NEED to have a menu with appropriate items; in this case simply do not call the SetOtherMenuBar method or use the othermenubar keyword argument of the class instance constructor.

The DisableOutput method does the reverse of this; it closes the window (and associated file), and sets the __debug__ variable of each module whose name begins with a capital letter {this happens to be the author’s personal practice; all my python module start with capital letters} to 0. It also enables/disabled the appropriate menu items, if this was done previously (or SetOtherMenuBar has been called…). Note too that after a call to DisableOutput, nothing further will be done upon subsequent write()’s, until the EnableOutput method is called, either explicitly or by the menu selection above…

Finally, note that the file-like method close() destroys the window (and closes any associated file) and there is a file-like method write() which displays it’s argument.

All (well, most) of this is made clear by the example code at the end of this file, which is run if the file is run by itself; otherwise, see the appropriate “stub” file in the wxPython demo.