wxPython

Developer(s)	Robin Dunn Harri Pasanen
Initial release	1998; 26 years ago (1998)
Stable release	4.2.1[1] / June 7, 2023; 10 months ago (2023-06-07)
Repository	github.com/wxWidgets/Phoenix/
Written in	Cross-platform
License	wxWindows License
Website	wxpython.org

wxPython is a

History

In 1995, Robin Dunn needed a

In August 1998, version 0.3 of wxPython was released. It was built for wxWidgets 2.0 and ran on Win32, with a wxGTK version in the works.[3]

The first versions of the wrapper were created by hand. However, the code became difficult to maintain and keep synchronized with wxWidgets releases. By 1997, versions were created with SWIG, greatly decreasing the amount of work to update the wrapper.^[2]

Project Phoenix

In 2010, the Project Phoenix began; an effort to clean up the wxPython implementation and in the process make it compatible with Python 3.^[4] The project is a new implementation of wxPython, focused on improving speed, maintainability and extensibility. Like the previous version of wxPython, it wraps the wxWidgets C++ toolkit and provides access to the user interface portions of the wxWidgets API.^[5]

With the release of 4.0.0a1 wxPython in 2017, the Project Phoenix version became the official version.^[6] wxPython 4.x is the current version being developed as of June 2022.^[7]

Use

wxPython enables Python to be used for cross-platform GUI applications requiring very little, if any, platform-specific code.

Example

This is a simple "

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import wx

app = wx.App(False)  # Create a new app, don't redirect stdout/stderr to a window.
frame = wx.Frame(None, title="Hello World") # A Frame is a top-level window.
frame.Show(True)     # Show the frame.
app.MainLoop()

import wx

class WxButton(wx.Frame):

    def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
        super(WxButton, self).__init__(*args, **kw)
        self.InitUI()

    def InitUI(self):
        pnl = wx.Panel(self)
        closeButton = wx.Button(pnl, label='Close Me', pos=(20, 20))

        closeButton.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.OnClose)

        self.SetSize((350, 250))
        self.SetTitle('Close Button')
        self.Centre()

    def OnClose(self, e):
        self.Close(True)

def main():
    app = wx.App()
    ex = WxButton(None)
    ex.Show()
    app.MainLoop()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

License

Being a wrapper, wxPython uses the same

• Chandler, a personal information
  manager
• Dropbox, desktop client for the Dropbox cloud-based storage^[9]
• Editra, a multi-platform text editor
• Google Drive, desktop client for the Google cloud-based storage system^[10]
• GRASS GIS, a free, open source geographical information system
• Métamorphose, a batch renamer
• Phatch, a photo batch processor
• PlayOnLinux and PlayOnMac, Wine front-ends
• PsychoPy, experiment creation tool for neuroscience and psychology research

References

Citations

Sources

• Precord, Cody (December 2010). wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook. Greenwich:
  ISBN 978-1-84951-178-0
  .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to WxPython.

• Official website
• wxPython Widget Tutorial Series
• Project Phoenix main page
• List of applications developed with wxPython