| <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Using python to create Macintosh applications, part two</TITLE></HEAD> | 
 | <BODY> | 
 | <H1>Using python to create Macintosh applications, part two</H1> | 
 | <HR> | 
 |  | 
 | In this document we rewrite the application of the <A | 
 | HREF="example1.html">previous example</A> to use modeless dialogs. We | 
 | will use an application framework, and we will have a look at creating | 
 | applets, standalone applications written in Python.  The <A | 
 | HREF="example2/dnslookup-2.py">source code</A> and  | 
 | <A HREF="example2/dnslookup-2.rsrc">resource file</A> are available in the folder  | 
 | <A HREF="example2">example2</A>. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | Again, we start with ResEdit to create our dialogs. Not only do we | 
 | want a main dialog this time but also an "About" dialog.  This example is less | 
 | than complete since we do not provide a <A NAME="bundle">BNDL resource</A>  | 
 | and related stuff that an application cannot be without. We are able to do this | 
 | when building a python applet since BuildApplet will substitute default resources | 
 | for BNDL, etc. when none are supplied (<A HREF="#no-bundle">See below</A>.) | 
 | "Inside Mac" or various | 
 | books on Macintosh programming will help here. Also, you can refer to | 
 | the resource files provided in the Python source distribution for some | 
 | of the python-specific points of BNDL programming: the | 
 | "appletbundle.rsrc" file is what is used for creating applets if you | 
 | don't provide your own resource file. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | When creating your own BNDL resouorces, keep in mind that the Finder gets  | 
 | confused if you have more than one application with the same signature. This may be due  | 
 | to some incorrectness on the side of "BuildApplet", I am not sure.  There is one  | 
 | case when you definitely need a unique signature: when you create an applet that  | 
 | has its own data files and you want the user to be able to start your | 
 | applet by double-clicking one of the datafiles. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | Let's have a look at dnslookup-2.rsrc, our resource file. Dialog 512 is the | 
 | main window which has one button (Lookup), two labels and | 
 | two text entry areas, one of which is used for output only. The "Quit" | 
 | button has disappeared, because its function is handled by a menu choice.  Here's | 
 | what it will look like at run time:<p> | 
 | <div align=center> | 
 | <img width=324 height=205 src="example2/dnslookup-2.gif" alt="dialog image"> | 
 | </div> | 
 | <p> | 
 |  | 
 | <H2>A modeless dialog application using FrameWork</H2> | 
 |  | 
 | On to the source code in <A | 
 | HREF="example2/dnslookup-2.py">dnslookup-2.py</A>.  The | 
 | start is similar to our previous example program <A | 
 | HREF="example1/dnslookup-1.py">dnslookup-1.py</A>, with | 
 | one extra module being imported. To make life more simple we will use | 
 | the <CODE>FrameWork</CODE> module, a nifty piece of code that handles | 
 | all the gory Mac details of event loop programming, menubar | 
 | installation and all the other code that is the same for every Mac | 
 | program in the world.  Like most standard modules, FrameWork will run | 
 | some sample test code when you invoke it as a main program, so try it | 
 | now. It will create a menu bar with an Apple menu with the about box | 
 | and a "File" menu with some pythonesque choices (which do nothing | 
 | interesting, by the way) and a "Quit" command that works. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | <BLOCKQUOTE> | 
 | If you have not used <code>FrameWork</code> before you may want to | 
 | first take a look at the <A HREF="textedit.html">Pathetic EDitor</A> | 
 | example, which builds a minimal text editor using FrameWork and TextEdit. | 
 | On the other hand: we don't use many features of FrameWork, so you could | 
 | also continue with this document.  | 
 | </BLOCKQUOTE> | 
 |  | 
 | After the imports we get the definitions of resource-IDs in our | 
 | resource file, slightly changed from the previous version of our | 
 | program. The main program is also | 
 | similar to our previous version, with one important exception: we | 
 | first check to see whether our resource is available before opening | 
 | the resource file. Why is this? Because later, when we will have | 
 | converted the script to an applet, our resources will be available in | 
 | the applet file and we don't need the separate resource file | 
 | anymore. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | Next comes the definition of our main class, | 
 | <CODE>DNSLookup</CODE>, which inherits | 
 | <CODE>FrameWork.Application</CODE>. The Application class handles the | 
 | menu bar and the main event loop and event dispatching. In the | 
 | <CODE>__init__</CODE> routine we first let the base class initialize | 
 | itself, then we create our modeless dialog and finally we jump into | 
 | the main loop. The main loop continues until we call <CODE>self._quit</CODE>, | 
 | which we will do when the user selects "Quit". When we create | 
 | the instance of <CODE>MyDialog</CODE> (which inherits | 
 | <CODE>DialogWindow</CODE>, which inherits <CODE>Window</CODE>) we pass | 
 | a reference to the application object, this reference is used to tell | 
 | Application about our new window.  This enables the event loop to keep | 
 | track of all windows and dispatch things like update events and mouse | 
 | clicks. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | The <CODE>makeusermenus()</CODE> method (which is called sometime | 
 | during the Application <CODE>__init__</CODE> routine) creates a File | 
 | menu with a Quit command (shortcut command-Q), which will callback to | 
 | our quit() method. <CODE>Quit()</CODE>, in turn, calls <CODE>_quit</CODE> which | 
 | causes the mainloop to terminate at a convenient time. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | Application provides a standard about box, but we override this by | 
 | providing our own <CODE>do_about()</CODE> method which shows an about | 
 | box from a resource as a modal dialog. This piece of code should look | 
 | familiar to you from the previous example program. That do_about is | 
 | called when the user selects About from the Apple menu is, again, | 
 | taken care of by the __init__ routine of Application. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | The <CODE>MyDialog</CODE> class is the container for our main | 
 | window. Initialization is again done by first calling the base class | 
 | <CODE>__init__</CODE> function and finally setting the local variable | 
 | "parent." <p> | 
 |  | 
 | <CODE>Do_itemhit()</CODE> is called when an item is selected in this | 
 | dialog by the user. We are passed the item number (and the original | 
 | event structure, which we normally ignore). The code is similar to the | 
 | main loop of our previous example program: a switch depending on the | 
 | item selected.  <CODE>Dnslookup()</CODE> is quite similar to our previous  | 
 | example. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | <H2><IMG SRC="html.icons/mkapplet.gif"><A NAME="applets">Creating applets</A></H2> | 
 |  | 
 | Now let us try to turn the python script into an applet, a standalone | 
 | application. This will <em>not</em> work if you have the "classic 68k" | 
 | Python distribution, only if you have the cfm68k or PPC distribution. | 
 |  | 
 | <blockquote> | 
 | Actually, "standalone" is probably not the correct term here, since an | 
 | applet does still depend on a lot of the python environment: the | 
 | PythonCore shared library, the Python Preferences file, the python Lib | 
 | folder and any other modules that the main module depends on. It is | 
 | possible to get rid of all these dependencies and create true standalone | 
 | applications in Python, but this is a bit difficult. See <a href="freezing.html"> | 
 | Standalone Applications in Python</a> for details. For this | 
 | document, by standalone we mean here that | 
 | the script has the look-and-feel of an application, including the | 
 | ability to have its own document types, be droppable, etc. | 
 | </blockquote> | 
 |  | 
 | The easiest way to create an applet is to take your source file and | 
 | drop it onto "BuildApplet", located in the Python home | 
 | folder. This will create an applet with the same name as your python | 
 | source with the ".py" stripped. Also, if a resource file with the same | 
 | name as your source but with ".rsrc" extension is available the | 
 | resources from that file will be copied to your applet too. If there | 
 | is no resource file for your script a set of default resources will be | 
 | used, and the applet will have the default creator 'Pyt0'. The latter | 
 | also happens if you do have a resource file but without the BNDL | 
 | combo. <A NAME="no-bundle">Actually</A>, as in the present example. | 
 | <p> | 
 |  | 
 | If you need slightly more control over the BuildApplet process you can | 
 | double-click it, and you will get dialogs for source and | 
 | destination of the applet. The rest of the process, including locating | 
 | the resource file, remains the same. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | Note that though our example application completely bypasses the | 
 | normal python user interface this is by no means necessary. Any python | 
 | script can be turned into an applet, and all the usual features of the | 
 | interpreter still work. <p> | 
 |  | 
 | That's all for this example, you may now return to the <A HREF="index.html"> | 
 | table of contents</A> to pick another topic. <p> | 
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