See the note at the bottom for the update.
If you ever want to create a cross-platform program with an interface similar to Photoshop’s, i.e. using palettes with different tools, don’t use wxWidgets. The only thing that comes close to that sort of palette is wx’s MiniFrame, which can only minimize / iconize on Windows. In GNOME, the MiniFrame looks terrible, especially with Compiz enabled. It cannot be minimized, maximized, or even closed. It just sits there and looks ugly. I wanted to try redesigning Boa Constructor‘s interface with palettes and a common window instead of three separate windows, however I cannot even begin this overhaul as the program is written in wxPython and the MiniFrame does not suffice.
I don’t know who’s at fault: the wxWidgets team for not implementing this feature correctly or GTK for not having such a widget.
I went through the source of wxPython and wxWidgets. wxPython looks like I expected it to, and I can’t make out much of the wxWidgets source. I hate C/C++.
I’m debating whether to submit a bug report. Or would this be a feature request? And who would I report it to?
Update: It seems this is GTK’s problem. A “GTK State of the Union” article was published on OSNews, and one of the features requested was a “Tools Palette”. Hopefully this feature will come to fruition. Also, I realized I had an older version of wx installed. I have a newer version, somewhere in 2.7.x, and the palette is now resizeable and closeable when style=wx.DEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE is passed. It still cannot be minimized (note: I haven’t tested 2.8.x)
