Re: [Gnue-dev] Unicode + wxPython

[Derek Neighbors]

I think that a good description of the problems was given.  It would be
great for the i18n stuff to look into using wxWindows with gtk2.x to get
full support.

Thanks,

Derek
On Fri, 2002-08-23 at 04:39, Arturas Kriukovas wrote:
> Hello
> 
> 
> some time ago i thought that wxPython does not support unicode. But with
> a help from Jan & Codeworks guru Marius appeared, that it's possible to
> get unicode wxForm via wxPython. Full sequence of achieving this is
> written below. However, the main thing is that with currect outer
> software (on my system it is Python 2.1.3, wxPython 2.2) we can see
> unicode characters and should be able to support them.
> 
> 
> Arturas
> address@hidden
> address@hidden
> 
> 
> How to put unicode characters in GNUE form:
> 1. Getting unicode console.
> My usual system locale configuration is:
>     >locale
>     LANG=POSIX
>     LC_CTYPE="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_NUMERIC="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_TIME="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_COLLATE="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_MONETARY="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_MESSAGES="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_PAPER="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_NAME="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_ADDRESS="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_TELEPHONE="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_MEASUREMENT="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_IDENTIFICATION="lt_LT.ISO8859-13"
>     LC_ALL=lt_LT.ISO8859-13
>     >locale charmap
>     ISO-8859-13
> On your system it will of course be different, but not too much.
> Too main variables here are:
>  * LC_CTYPE and
>  * LC_ALL.
> LC_ALL is important because it overrides all other LC_* variables - any
> changes to LC_CTYPE will not work if LC_ALL will be set to some value.
> LC_CTYPE defines your 'character classification' (from manual; as far as
> i saw it practically defines what key on your keyboard what letter
> define).
> We need to unset LC_ALL (because it will override LC_CTYPE and we do not
> need this) and change LC_CTYPE to some utf-8 value. I do it like this:
>     unset LC_ALL
>     LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.UTF-8
> After running it my locale configuration becomes like this:
>     >unset LC_ALL
>     address@hidden:11:22:38:~:
>     >LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.UTF-8
>     address@hidden:11:22:57:~:
>     >locale
>     LANG=POSIX
>     LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.UTF-8
>     LC_NUMERIC="POSIX"
>     LC_TIME="POSIX"
>     LC_COLLATE=C
>     LC_MONETARY="POSIX"
>     LC_MESSAGES="POSIX"
>     LC_PAPER="POSIX"
>     LC_NAME="POSIX"
>     LC_ADDRESS="POSIX"
>     LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX"
>     LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX"
>     LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX"
>     LC_ALL=
>     address@hidden:11:23:00:~:
>     >locale charmap
>     UTF-8
> Now with current locale configuration we need to start xterm. Note that
> we also need to set specific font font xterm, what can be done:
>     xterm -fn -misc-fixed-medium-*-140-*-iso10646-1 
>       -fb -misc-fixed-medium-*-140-*-iso10646-1 &
> [there shouldn't be a line break before '-fb' - all command should be in
> one line - this break is for better readability]
> The parameters for xterm set it to use misc fixed .... font, the most
> important thing here is font encoding - iso10646-1 - it is ISO unicode
> font encoding name.
> Personally i use a small script:
>         #!/bin/bash
>         old_CTYPE=$LC_CTYPE
>         old_ALL=$LC_ALL
>         LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.UTF-8
>         unset LC_ALL
>         command xterm -fn -misc-fixed-medium-*-140-*-iso10646-1 -fb
>           -misc-fixed-medium-*-140-*-iso10646-1 &
>         LC_CTYPE=$old_CTYPE
>         LC_ALL=$old_ALL
> ['command' is used because i have an alias 'xterm' to launch xterm with
> Lithuanian fonts]
> Now we have unicode xterm.
> 
> 2. Switching through languages.
> In my .xsession file i have following settings:
>         export LC_CTYPE=lt_LT.ISO8859-13
>         export LC_COLLATE=lt_LT.ISO8859-13
>         export LC_ALL=lt_LT.ISO8859-13
>         setxkbmap -option grp:alt_shift_toggle lt &
> This binds LeftAlt + LeftShift buttons to change between English and
> Lithuanian languages.
> When i have unicode xterm, i simply run commands like 'setxkbmap ru', or
> 'setxkbmap de' or any other and use LeftAlt+LeftShift to switch between
> English and the language i set up.
> 
> So now we have unicode xterm and we can write there in different
> languages.
> 
> 3. Work.
> We can work as well from unicode console as well as from simple console.
> The only note - if we save file from unicode console that has some
> non-standard characters (i mean characters that are specific to some 
> languages, the ones that are not in ASCII [English language does not
> have these]) and later try to open this file from simple (non-unicode)
> console, we will not see these characters (this is important thing as we'll 
> see
> later).
> This is because the file is saved encoded in UTF - that is ASCII
> characters are saved in one byte encoding, other characters are saved in
> two or more bytes.
> 
> 4. Python.
> This is a simple python script (also included as attachment) that should
> be saved as UTF encoded file, let's say as 'script1.py':
>     #!/usr/bin/python
>     print "UTF-8 & one byte font"
>     print "---------------------"
>     print "Creating unicode string 'foo'"
>     foo = unicode('asd--[russian letters]-[lithuanian letters]','utf-8')
>     print "String output encoded in UTF-8: print foo.encode('utf-8')"
>     print foo.encode('utf-8')
>     print "String output as ASCII: print foo"
>     print foo
> You can write any non-ASCII characters instead of [russian|lithuanian
> letters].
> If we run this file from simple (non-unicode) console, first line is not
> outputted correctly and python dies trying to output second line with
> ASCII decoding error.
> less command does not output file correctly.
> If we run this file from unicode console, first line is outputted
> correctly and python dies trying to output second line with ASCII
> decoding error.
> less command here does output file correctly.
> 
> 5. wxPython
> This is a larger python script, that i shamelessly copied from
> somewhere.
> It also should be saved as UTF-8 encoded file, let's say as
> 'script2.py'.
> It has a window, some labels, menu, status bar, button... :
> NOTE: you might not see characters correctly - it's because your window
> manager uses some not-unicode encoding. I cannot tell you now what\where
> to change - it's too window manager dependent, however every font that
> is used, should be encoded as ...iso10646-1, not as iso8859-*
> not this:
> -->  -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
> but this:
> -->  -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1
> 
> -------------------------------BEGIN------------------------------------
> #!/usr/bin/python
> #---------------------------------------------
> # Name:         Cookie.Py
> # Purpose:      A silly `fortune' application
> #---------------------------------------------
> ## import all of the wxPython GUI package
> from wxPython.wx             import *
> 
> ## Create a new frame class, derived from the wxPython Frame.
> enc = 'utf-8'
> class MyFrame(wxFrame):
>     def __init__(self, parent, id, title):
>         self.myFortunes = [
>             unicode("A fox -[russian characters]",enc).encode(enc),
>             unicode("A good -[russian characters]",enc).encode(enc),
>             unicode("A man -[russian characters]",enc).encode(enc) +\
>             unicode("he is -[russian characters]",enc).encode(enc),
>             ]
>         self.which = 0
>         myMenuTable = (
>             [unicode('&File-[russian characters]',enc).encode(enc),
>              (unicode('&New-[russian characters]',enc).encode(enc),
> unicode('Get a -[russian characters]',enc).encode(enc),
> self.OnButtonClick),
>              ('---',),
>              (unicode('E&xit-[russian characters]',enc).encode(enc),
> unicode('Leave -[russian characters]',enc).encode(enc), self.exitApp)],
>             )
>         # Call the parent class method
>         wxFrame.__init__(self, parent, id, title,
>                          wxPoint(100, 100), wxSize(160, 100))
>         # Add a panel to place things in
>         panel = wxPanel(self, -1)
>         self.text = wxStaticText(panel, 1009, \
>                      "Click on button to get a cookie!", \
>                       wxPoint(40,25), wxSize(150,80))
>         button = wxButton(self, 1010, "New cookie", \
>                           wxPoint(150,90), wxSize(70,20))
>         # window layout
>         box = wxBoxSizer(wxVERTICAL)
>         spacer = wxBoxSizer(wxHORIZONTAL)
>         spacer.Add(0, 0, 1, wxEXPAND)
>         spacer.Add(button, 0, wxALIGN_BOTTOM)
>         spacer.Add(0, 0, 1, wxEXPAND)
>         box.Add(panel, 1, wxEXPAND)
>         box.Add(spacer, 0, wxEXPAND)
>         # associate button with event
>         EVT_BUTTON(self, 1010, self.OnButtonClick)
>         # associate close event with handling method
>         EVT_CLOSE(self, self.OnCloseWindow)
>         # make a status bar
>         self.CreateStatusBar()
>         # Make a main menu
>         self.mainmenu = wxMenuBar()
>         # fill the `file menu table'
>         for submenu in myMenuTable:
>             newMenu = wxMenu()
>             for item in submenu[1:]:
>                 if (item[0] != '---'):
>                     fmID = NewId()
>                     newMenu.Append(fmID, item[0], item[1])
>                     EVT_MENU(self, fmID, item[2])
>                 else:
>                     newMenu.AppendSeparator()
>             # fill the main menu
>             self.mainmenu.Append(newMenu, submenu[0])
>         self.SetMenuBar(self.mainmenu)
>         self.Fit()
>         self.SetSizer(box)
>         self.SetAutoLayout(true)
>     def OnButtonClick(self, event):
>         self.text.SetLabel(self.myFortunes[self.which \
>                     % len(self.myFortunes)])
>         self.which = self.which + 1
>     # This method is called automatically when the CLOSE event is
>     # sent to this window
>     def OnCloseWindow(self, event):
>         ruSure=wxMessageDialog(self, "Do you want to quit?",\
>                    "Leaving Cookie", \
>                    wxOK | wxCANCEL | wxICON_QUESTION)
>         if (ruSure.ShowModal() == wxID_CANCEL):
>             event.Veto()
>         else:
>             print "# Bye bye [russian characters]"
>             # tell the window to kill itself
>             self.Destroy()
>     def exitApp(self,event):
>         self.Close()
> # Every wxWindows application must have a class derived from wxApp
> class MyApp(wxApp):
>     # wxWindows calls this method to initialize the application
>     def OnInit(self):
>         # Create an instance of our customized Frame class
>         frame = MyFrame(NULL, -1, "Cookies!")
>         frame.Show(true)
>         # Tell wxWindows that this is our main window
>         self.SetTopWindow(frame)
>         # Return a success flag
>         return true
> # if running standalone
> if __name__ == "__main__":
>     app = MyApp(0)     # Create an instance of the application class
>     app.MainLoop()     # Tell it to start processing events
> ---------------------------------END----------------------------
> 
> We can see a nice window with some non-ASCII like characters in menu,
> labels and etc.
> 
> 6. GNUE.
> If we run GNUE form client or designer from unicode console, we can put
> English, Russian, Lithuanian and any other characters in textboxes. So
> it looks like support for unicode is internal GNUE problem that should
> not require any additional outer software support.