Okay, now I see what I was doing wrong. For some dumb reason, I had forgotten that you can create a widget without assigning a variable. That helps runtime widget creation a LOT.
The Frame idea I had was actually writing out one Frame per type of spread; I would have had, for example, celtic_cross_frame, past_present_future_frame, etc. Selecting a different spread would hotswap one spread Frame out for a new one and configure the widgets already hardcoded in the Frame. Then I remembered that all I need to do to create a widget is simply call it and add it to the layout, so I just created a single Frame and a loop that adds a variable number of widgets. Now I just destroy that Frame (and thus, the widgets it holds), recreate it, and repopulate it. Which, re-reading this discussion, is probably what you meant by standard practice. Thanks for your help! On Nov 25, 2012 8:10 PM, "Nathan" <sdragon1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Nov 25, 2012 6:49 PM, "ALAN GAULD" <alan.ga...@btinternet.com> wrote: > > > > CC'ing the list... > > > > Oops, my bad. I forget to hit Reply All. > > >> > >> I know you can use images instead of text with Labels, like you can > with Buttons. > >> The advantage of a Text widget, in this case, is that you can use both > in the same widget. > >> That way, I don't need to worry about how widgets are displayed, > shuffled around, and > >> undisplayed during runtime. One widget should handle everything. > >> > > Don't get hung up on the number of widgets. In the scheme of things > widgets are not > > expensive. Create them as you need them, delete them when you are done. > Layout > > managers are there to manage the layout for you. if you can define the > layout in terms > > of a grid then you can fill the grid with blanks to hold the shape and > add/remove > > widgets as you like. > > > > If you use pack you can either force the containing frame to a fixed > size or allow it > > to grow/shrink with the widgets. Either approach can work. > >> > >> This is standard? That's interesting to know. The biggest issue I'm > having here is scalability. > >> Each new spread is going to need a new frame widget, which in turn will > need > >> (number of cards in spread)*2 more widgets. > >> > > But that's how many? If its getting up beyond a couple of thousand then > you might > > have a problem. If its less than a hundred its not an issue. In between > you might want > > to be a bit clever. > > Well, that depends entirely on how many spreads I'll eventually have, and > the average number of cards per spread. Celtic Cross, for example, is a ten > card spread, so it needs 21 widgets by itself. A hundred widgets is reached > with just 10 spreads averaging 4.5 cards each. I expect, ultimately, to > have more than that. > > >> > >> As noted above, the Text widget solution only needs one. > >> > > Actually it probably needs more. Each image is a widget too, so you just > organise > > the widgets inside a Text instead of inside a Frame or Canvas. > > Is that how it works on the source level, or "under the hood"? The code > makes it look like I'm only writing one widget, with multiple text and > image elements within it, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding something. > > The approach I'm taking now is a Label widget, containing a single string > constructed with elements from lists. I'm hoping that I can take the same > approach using a single Text widget, and just convert every other string > element from a filename to an image. > > >All these things are > > just containers for more widgets. Frames are designed to hold widgets, > end of story. > > Text is designed to *display* images and text - usually within a Frame. > Canvas is > > designed to *display* images and graphics shapes. If you want your > images joined > > or surrounded by lines/circles etc then go with Canvas. If you need to > include > > explanatory text around the images use a Text. If you want to create a > reusable > > widget that you can use in multiple screens or hot swap with other > variants of > > the same go with a Frame and build a display widget hierarchy. If you > just want to > > display a bunch of images it doesn't matter much which one you pick. > > > > Then it seems Text it is. Perhaps later in development, Frames and/or > Canvases might be appropriate for more complex designs. > > > I repeat, don't sweat over the widget count, that's not usually an issue. > > > > Alan G. > > > > Thanks! >
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