Have you ever wondered if you could create a wxPython program using XML? Well, I never did either, but there is a way and its name is XRC. In fact, wxPython comes with an editor called XRCed that you can use to layout your GUI and generate the XML code with. In this article, we’ll […]
wxPython: An Introduction to XRC Read More »
The other day, I received a request to create a script that could tell how long a Windows XP machine had been idle and to alert the user if it had been idle for a certain amount of time. I did a little research with Google and found a couple of ways to accomplish this
Python: How to Tell How Long Windows Has Been Idle Read More »
While working on my Python mp3 player I realized I needed to research what Python had to offer for parsing ID3 tags. There are tons of projects out there, but most of them appear to be either dead, don’t have documentation or both. In this post, you will discover the wild world of MP3 tag
Parsing ID3 Tags from MP3s using Python Read More »
Last month, I started a series of articles on creating simple applications with wxPython. The first couple of articles were on an Image Viewer program. While I won’t abandon that project, I thought it was time for us to delve into something new. In this article we will start a journey into the wild and
wxPython: Creating a Simple MP3 Player Read More »
Have you ever thought that it would be cool to have your wxPython code take a screenshot of itself? Well, Andrea Gavana figured out a cool way to do just that and between what he told us on the wxPython mailing list and what I learned from other sources, you will soon learn how to
How to Take a Screenshot of Your wxPython App and Print it Read More »
Soon after getting hired at my current job, my boss sent me a script (which I think was based on this article) about Python and a certain text-to-speech module called pyTTS. This was right after Python 2.5 had released. Anyway, it’s basically a nice wrapper over the win32com module which can communicate with the Microsoft
Python Text-to-Speech: Making Your PC Talk Read More »
Last week, I was trying to find out how to get my photo’s metadata. I had noticed that Windows could display the camera model, creation date and lots of other data on my photos, but I couldn’t remember what that data was called. I finally found what I was looking for. The term is EXIF
Getting Photo Metadata (EXIF) Using Python Read More »
Python’s standard library is known for including lots of handy modules and packages that can be used without installing anything else. That’s one of the primary reasons that its standard library is called “batteries included” so often. So it should come as no surprise that Python includes a Windows only module for editing the Windows
Python’s _winreg: Editing the Windows Registry Read More »
The grid widget in wxPython is one of the most complex GUI elements that you’ll work with in this toolkit. In this article you will learn the basics of grid creation and usage. One of the major uses for a grid is to display tabular data. Another use is to create some kind of spreadsheet.
wxPython: An Introduction to Grids Read More »
Before PyCon, I was approached by a representative from Packt Publishing to review one of their books. They wanted me to read Daniel Arbuckle’s Python Testing: Beginner’s Guide. I’m not really into testing frameworks or test driven development and thought this would be a good excuse to learn the methodology and see if it was
Book Review: Python Testing Read More »
This week I was tasked with trying to find a way to find out what the Peak Commit value was on our virtual workstations. The reason being that we are trying to save money and were wondering if we were allocating too much memory or not. We didn’t need the Total Commit Charge or the
Python: Finding the Commit Charge Values in Windows Read More »
Have you ever wondered what software was installed on your PC? Most people who use Windows would probably go to Add/Remove Programs to find out this information, but they’re not programmers. No, programmers have to script it because it’s just in our blood to do so. I actually had another reason to do so: my
Finding Installed Software using Python Read More »
Back when I first wrote about creating shortcuts with Python last month, I kept thinking to myself that I had a 3rd way of doing it. Today, I had to maintain some of my shortcut code and I stumbled upon it once more. I also noticed that my post had received a comment from Tim
Creating Windows Shortcuts with Python (Part II) Read More »
I do a fair amount of technical support in addition to my software development. In our small shop, we get to troubleshoot anything that is related to technology, from networks to software to printers. I think one of the most annoying aspects is trying to get printers to work the way the user wants. Another
Python, Windows and Printers Read More »
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about some scripts we use at work for creating shortcuts to various programs in Windows. Well, we also push out updates to some programs which change the paths of the programs and then we need to change the user’s shortcuts to match. Unfortunately, some user’s will change the name
Using Python to Edit Bad Shortcuts Read More »