PythonCard FAQ

# PythonCard

## PythonCard FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Q. What is PythonCard?
A. PythonCard is designed to be an application development framework for use by everybody. Its purpose and goal is ease of use and increasing productivity. From the first time developer to the veteran coder who knows a dozen languages, PythonCard is designed to allow you to quickly and easily design and build fully functioning applications with a graphical user interface.

Q. What is the similarity between PythonCard and HyperCard?
A. The PythonCard project is using HyperCard for inspiration. The first goal is to produce a framework. We already have runtime tools (Message Watcher, Property Editor, Shell) and a layout editor (resourceEditor sample), but we don't have an environment yet. You can use the resourceEditor sample to build layouts for your applications.

Q. Have any programs been written with PythonCard?
A. Yes. For a list of the samples that have been built with PythonCard and some screenshots of them in action go to the samples page. A description of each sample is included in the readme.txt file in each sample directory.

Q. Do I need to know Python to use PythonCard?
A. Yes. We've added a Learning Python page to get you started.

Q. What do I need to use PythonCard?
A. Python 2.3 or higher and wxPython 2.5.2.8 or higher.

Q. What Operating Systems are supported?
A. PythonCard runs on every platform that both Python and wxPython are available for. This includes Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Mac OS X, Linux GTK, and Solaris

Q. Does PythonCard run on Macintosh OS X?
A. Yes

Q. Can I build standalone executables?
A. Yes, using py2exe or Gordon McMillan's installer. On Mac OS X, you can use BundleBuilder to make standalones. The minimalStandalone sample includes example scripts for all of them.

Q. How can I make the Return key act like the Tab key in a field, so that pressing Return navigates to the next component?
A. The wxPython 2.5.2.x MigrationGuide.html document has an example using wx.NavigationKeyEvent, which is new in wxPython 2.5.2. Adapting that to cause the Return key to behave the same as the Tab key using PythonCard event attribute names gives us this example:

        def on_keyDown(self, event):
            # wx.WXK_RETURN is 13
            if event.keyCode == wx.WXK_RETURN:
                if event.shiftDown:
                    flags = wx.NavigationKeyEvent.IsBackward
                else:
                    flags = wx.NavigationKeyEvent.IsForward
                if event.controlDown:
                    flags |= wx.NavigationKeyEvent.WinChange
                event.target.Navigate(flags)
            else:
                event.skip()

Q. Where is the home page?
A. http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/

Q. Where can I download PythonCard?
A. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19015

Q. Where is the mailing list?
A. http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pythoncard-users

Q. Where is the CVS?
A. http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=19015

$Revision: 1.13 $ : $Author $ : Last updated $Date: 2004/10/01 00:00:45 $