Version 6.10 Release

VPython 6.10 has been released; see the Windows and Mac download pages at vpython.org (a Linux package is coming).

VPython 6.10 introduces ways to delete displays and wxPython windows without ending the program, which lets you clear everything away and create new displays or windows.

Suppose w = window() and d = display(window=w): then w.delete() deletes the wxPython window and all the widgets contained in that window, including the d display.

d.delete() just deletes the display from the window it appears in unless d.window = None, in which case the entire window is deleted.

window.delete_all(), not w.delete_all(), deletes all VPython windows and displays.

Moreover, w.cursor.visible or d.cursor.visible can now be set to True or False (only d.cursor.visible works on a Macintosh).

You can now specify a window style when creating a wxPython window; see the example program widgets.py for an example.

Something that was either a bug or a feature has been addressed: If you set shaftwidth to be nonzero for an arrow, you also had to set fixedwidth = True, which seemed awkward. Now when you set shaftwidth this automatically sets fixedwidth = True. If you set fixedwidth = False later in the program, you get the somewhat quirky behavior currently seen with this combination.

Creation of displays or wxPython windows now checks for part of the area being off screen and decreases the width and/or height to make all of the area appear on screen.

Setting scene.fullscreen = True now works properly (but is inactive on a Macintosh).

Pressing CTRL while dragging the mouse now rotates the camera on all platforms.

The statement exit() kills the program.

Many bugs have been fixed; a list is available at

https://github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx/issues?direction=desc&page=1&sort=updated&state=closed

A history of source-code changes is available at

https://github.com/BruceSherwood/vpython-wx/commits/master

This release is brought to you by Steve Spicklemire and Bruce Sherwood. We thank Geoff Tovey for the new example program camera.py which vividly illustrates the geometry of the camera view (center, range, field of view, etc.).