Row height sizes in GTK wigits with font changes



I hope I'm not bothering this list wrongly or unnecessarily, if so apologies, 
but I've been advised to post to this list by other developers.

I'm involved in the open source gnuMed open source medical records project, 
and we are using wxPython for the design interface. I am the 
gui-cordinator/designer, with a particular interest in gui design going back 
nearly 10 years, most work on (apologies) vb platforms.


Medical records programs are by their nature difficult to design, because one 
needs much information on the screen at the one time, yet it needs to remain 
relevant and readable.

We have been finding problems with the wxPython wigits on two fronts and I 
have been previously advised by members of the wxPython list, and more 
recently by our own backend developers to post to this list in hope of 
finding a solution.

Two problems:

1)Anomaly in space taken by rows in list boxes with different font sizes. in 
GTK as the font size decreases, the row size seems not to proportionally 
decrease, leading to loss of valuable screen real estate. This is best 
illustrated in the accompanying png file (font_creep_wxPtyhonLists.png) where 
I have set roughly the same font in a listbox on wxPython(on the left) and on 
QT designer (on the right). As you will see  one can fit more items in the qt 
list box compared to the GTK one, and quite a lot of line space is left blank 
above the text in GTK.

2)The second ongoing  problem is that it seems not possible, despite the flags 
present, to have borderless controls (not 3D) controls. Whilst this may seem 
petty having a 3d border round the text boxes and sometimes other controls 
can interfere in some cases with design, and again means ultimately (I know 
this seems petty) less room on the screen, when space is at a premium

I've attatched a png showing comparisons of say the allergy entering wigit in 
wxPython (top) and visual basic (qt is the same) on the bottom

I hope someone can enlighten me and help as our project is keen to progress 
and there is much debate as to whether we should switch to qt interface, or 
remain with wxPython which many prefer for many reasons such as its features 
and non restrictive licencing.

For your interest if you wish to view the gui philosphy behind the project and 
the style of gui we are trying to emulate in more detail, see:

www.gnumed.net/rterry/Index.htm

Thanks in anticipation.

Dr Richard Terry
gnuMed Project
gui_coordinator
Newcastle
NSW
Australia

Attachment: font_screep_wxPythonLIsts.png
Description: PNG image

Attachment: allergwx_vs_vbasic.png
Description: PNG image



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