Connecting geeks

wxWidgets and wxPython almost hildonized

February 3rd, 2006

I am working in the port of wxWidgets and wxPython to the Maemo platform.

My last try did not manage to get a proper look and feel in the Maemo environment. But this time I copied the files from /usr/share/themes from my Nokia 770 to the scratchbox environment on my computer (just click here if you are wondering what the hell is a scratchbox), and added this to .gtkrc-2.0 to my home directory


include '/usr/share/themes/default/gtk-2.0/gtkrc'

After that, without recompiling the libraries, all the applications got the Hildon look and feel, as the following screenshots evidence:

The Minimal sample (wxWidgets)

A sample showing the wxGrid widget (wxWidgets)

The menubar is not yet integrated with the Hildon look and feel (wxWidgets)

A sample showing some buttons and a tooltip (wxPython)

The different kind of buttons available in wxWidgets (wxPython)

As the GNU/Linux version of wxWidgets is developed with GTK, it seems that the applications are very well integrated. For example, they are responsing to maximize to full screen events (with the hardware button). There are still some minor issues, as the menu bar, which is a window placed over the main window. Instead, it should use the Hildon functions for menu bars. Also the virtual keyboard annonyingly appears each time you click in the bottom part of the screen. I don’t know yet why.

So I think as soon I have a couple of days, I will manage to port these libraries to Maemo. And so applications will be to able to be developed in C++ and Python for the Nokia 770.

14 Comments Add your own

1. High Earth Orbit » &hellip | February 9th, 2006 at 8:28 am

[…] Connecting Geeks has an in-progress report on porting wxPython and wxWidgets to the Maemo platform. This is very awesome news. Back in the days, I’ve done my fair share of C++ programming. But I have just gotten increasingly tired of dealing with development environments, preprocessing, linking, and portability. I spend half of my development time staring a link lines for missing function references from unknown or incompatible libraries. […]
2. Toni | March 22nd, 2006 at 1:34 am

Are there any betas we can try out?
3. herraiz | March 22nd, 2006 at 6:07 am

Sorry. I can pass you the raw files if you want, but I have not made yet a package.

I hope to have them ready not too late, but I am being very busy in the last weeks.
4. Jussi Kukkonen | March 28th, 2006 at 5:48 am

Which version of wxWidgets are you working on?
5. herraiz | March 30th, 2006 at 12:40 am

On 2.6.2.1
6. Thomas | April 12th, 2006 at 5:04 pm

Hi,

Can I get the raw files for wxwidgets? ii would like to try them out. I don’t really need a package if you tell me where i have to move them

you can contact me at: thomas.schmid[atREPLACE]gmail.com

Thanks,

Thomas
7. Laszlo | August 13th, 2006 at 12:07 pm

Hi,

Could you send me the raw files or the package?
I would love to try them out on y Nokia770.

My email lantal@tmail.com.

Thank you in advance

Laszlo
8. herraiz | August 13th, 2006 at 12:44 pm

It seems that wxWidgets has been already hildonized. I will write another post about it. Keep an eye on the blog. I will try to do it as soon as possible.

You can check also the sources of wxGTK, and use the option –with-hildon in the configure file when compiling the library.

Check wxwidgets.org for the sources (wxpython.org for the Python binding).
9. Chris Barker | January 3rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm

I see your last post is from August — have you done anything since then?

I jsut got my 770 for Xmass and I’d love to get wxPython running on it — I’m a big wxPython fan.

-Chris
10. herraiz | January 4th, 2007 at 6:39 am

I tried to do something, but I did not avanced too much. If you want to work with wxPython, it is easy to do it just compiling it under the scratchbox environment, and following my instructions. However, some things like menu bars do not work properly (this is, according to the Maemo standards) under the 770.

Sorry, but I do not think I will be able of working on this in the next weeks/months.
11. Peter | October 2nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm

Set up Maemo 3.2 SDK and get scratchbox working per the tutorial
Create a file named .gtkrc-2.0 in your scratchbox home directory with the following line:
include ‘/usr/share/themes/default/gtk-2.0/gtkrc’

Install the python2.5 package from the maemo repository (right now only the ARM packages will install)
Download the wxPython 2.8.6.0 source code archive and extract it
create a bld directory inside of the directory
cd into it

../configure –without-opengl –disable-debug –enable-sound –with-gtk –enable-unicode
make
make install

cd into the wxPython subdirectory
python2.5 setup.py build_ext –inplace UNICODE=1 BUILD_GLCANVAS=0 BUILD_STC=0 BUILD_GIZMOS=0
python2.5 setup.py install UNICODE=1 BUILD_GLCANVAS=0 BUILD_STC=0 BUILD_GIZMOS=0

cd into
/samples/simple
run-standalone.sh python2.5 ./simple.py

A lot of the demos will run too, though with a lot of them you get a message about a _stc python module that is missing. I haven’t looked into it.
12. cowbot | October 4th, 2007 at 2:06 am

Looks very dead-ish. The maemo.org wiki links to wxwidgets libs are also dead.

Can anyone who got the widgets working test build audacity? There are many optional libraries that need to be omitted - hack debian compat, control and rules for minimal configuration and you could possibly get a maemo build.

Leave a note on internettablettalk.com forums for best visibility.
13. jaremo | November 20th, 2007 at 1:09 am

Hi, I tried this, but when I’m in bld directory and try to run “configure” as stated, I get:

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

I have absolutely NO IDEA what goes wrong, anyone else? I was working in Scratchbox ARMEL target.
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