Phoenix/packaging/ANNOUNCE.txt

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Announcing wxPython 4.0.0
=========================

PyPI:   https://pypi.python.org/pypi/wxPython/4.0.0
Extras: https://extras.wxPython.org/wxPython4/extras/
Pip:    ``pip install wxPython==4.0.0``

Changes in this release include the following:

* Fixes in wx.aui to properly transfer ownership of the menubar, and also some
  tweaks in the AUI_MDI sample in the demo. (#540)

* Added a wx.BUILD_TYPE value to distinguish between development, snapshot,
  and release builds. The value is also appended to wx.PlatformInfo. (Thanks
  Mesalu!)

* Fix crash when trying to fetch multiple items from a composite data object
  in wx.DropTarget.OnData. (#550) Also fixed the CustomDragAndDrop sample to
  not fail on Python 2.7.

* Add ability for wxArray wrappers to return a copy of the item in the
  ``__getitem__`` method. This solves problems where an array that is the
  return value of some method call is indexed immediately and a reference to
  the array is not held, which could result in garbage values for the indexed
  item. Currently this is turned on for just GridCellCoordsArray, but others
  can be switched in the future if needed. (#297)

* Add missing ``wx.GetLocale`` function. (#572)

* Add methods to wx.TextCtrl for output "file-like" compatibility. (#578)

* Fix object ownership issue for menus added to toolbar items. (#580)

* Updated SIP to version 4.19.5. One of the new features of this version is
  that integer overflows are no longer silently truncated and ignored. In
  other words, if a wrapped API has a parameter that is a C int type, and you
  pass a value that is larger than what will fit in that type of integer then
  an OverflowError exception will be raised.

* Fixed wx.richtext.RichTextBuffer.GetExtWildcard to return a tuple of 2
  values, as was done in Classic. (#594)

* Various fixes in UltimateListCtrl, HyperTreeList and CheckListCtrlMixin.
  (#592, #349, #612)

* Fixes in TextEditMixin to ensure that the new value is passed in the
  event. (#605)

* Fix comparing DataViewItem and TreeListItem objects with None. (#595)

* Fix event type name in wx/lib/sheet.py (#613)

* The wx.MessageDialog methods which take ButtonLabel parameters are now able
  to accept either strings or stock IDs. (#607, #276)

* Fix wx.EvtHandler.Unbind to work correctly when specifying the handler and
  it is a bound method. (#624)

* Fix OGL's ShapeCanvas to draw properly when the window is scrolled, and
  to also adjust the mouse coordinates, etc. (#635)

* Set a default background color for the generic buttons. (#651)

* Fixed HtmlWindow's OnFoo virtual methods so calls to them are propagated to
  the Python class. (#642)

* Fixed wx.CallLater to explicitly hold a reference instead of depending on an
  uncollectable cycle to keep the instance around. Like before the cycle is
  broken and the saved reference is deleted after the timer expires and the
  callable has been called. (#457)

* Although it's more or less just an implementation detail, add wrappers for
  wx.aui.AuiTabCtrl so references to it will get the correct type. (#664)

* List-like wrapper classes generated for accessing wxLists and wxArrays now
  support reverse indexing. (#669) For example::

      child = panel.GetChildren()[-1]


* Ported some of the classes in Classic's gizmos module from C++ to Python,
  including LEDNumberCtrl, DynamicSashWindow, and TreeListCtrl. The classes
  are now located in the wx.lib.gizmos package, with a compatibility module at
  the old wx.gizmos location. Please note that this TreeListCtrl class is a
  very different implementation than wx.dataview.TreeListCtrl, although there
  is some overlap in purpose. In addition, the new TreeListCtrl class is not
  actually a port from the old gizmos.TreeListCtrl but rather just a thin
  layer around AGW's HyperTreeList. This means that if you are using a non-
  default style flag you'll need to pass it to the agwStyle parameter instead
  of the style parameter.

* Fix crash when deleting all wx.dataview.TreeListCtrl items with wxGTK3.
  (#679, #704)

* Fix displaying '&' in the label of wx.RadioBox on GTK. (#39)

* Fix problems of the wrong C++ method being called in wx.ProgressDialog on MS
  Windows. (#701)

* Fixed how the scrollbar events are captured in DynamicSashWindow in order to
  fix regression in the sample. (#687)

* Allow extra CLI args to be passed to build.py by setting WXPYTHON_BUILD_ARGS
  in the environment.

* Added context manager methods to wx.DC that explicitly destroys the C++
  part of the DC upon exit. Using DCs as context managers is not required, but
  can be handy in the rare cases where something holds on to a DC for too
  long, perhaps unintentionally. (#680)

* Fixed crash due to too aggressive management of wxModules when we load
  subordinate extensions that have their own wxModules (wx.html, wx.adv, etc.)
  (#688)

* Fixed StyledTextCtrl.MarkerDefineRGBAImage and RegisterRGBAImage methods to
  be able to accept any Python buffer compatible object for the pixel data. (#716)





What is wxPython?
-----------------

wxPython is a cross-platform GUI toolkit for the Python programming
language.  It allows Python programmers to create programs with a
robust, highly functional graphical user interface, simply and
easily. It is implemented as a set of Python extension modules that
wrap the GUI components of the popular wxWidgets cross platform
library, which is written in C++. Supported platforms are Microsoft
Windows, Mac OS X and macOS, and Linux or other unix-like systems with
GTK2 or GTK3 libraries. In most cases the native widgets are used on
each platform to provide a 100% native look and feel for the
application.


What is wxPython Phoenix?
-------------------------

wxPython's Project Phoenix is a new from-the-ground-up implementation
of wxPython, created with the intent of making wxPython “better,
stronger, faster than he was before.” In other words, this new
implementation is focused on improving speed, maintainability and
extensibility of wxPython, as well as removing most of the cruft that
had accumulated over the long life of Classic wxPython.

The project has been in development off and on, mostly behind the
scenes, for many years. For the past few years automated snapshot
builds have been available for those adventurous enough to try it, and
many people eventually started using the snapshots in their projects,
even for production releases.  While there are still some things on
the periphery that need to be completed, the core of the new wxPython
extension modules which wrap the wxWidgets code has been stable for a
long time now.

Due to some things being cleaned up, reorganized, simplified and
dehackified wxPython Phoenix is not completely backwards compatible
with wxPython Classic.  This is intended. In general, however, the API
differences tend to be minor and some applications can use Phoenix
with slight, or even with no modifications.  In some other cases the
correct way to do things was also available in Classic and it's only
the wrong way that has been removed from Phoenix.  For more
information there is a Migration Guide document available at:
https://docs.wxpython.org/MigrationGuide.html

The new wxPython API reference documentation, including all
Python-specific additions and customizations, and docs for the wx.lib
package, is located at: https://docs.wxpython.org/