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phoenix_title wx.adv.LayoutAlgorithm

wx.adv.LayoutAlgorithm implements layout of subwindows in MDI or SDI frames.


For SDI (normal) frames, a ‘main’ window is specified as taking up the remaining space.

Because the event system is used, this technique can be applied to any windows, which are not necessarily ‘aware’ of the layout classes (no virtual functions in wx.Window refer to wx.adv.LayoutAlgorithm or its events). However, you may wish to use wx.adv.SashLayoutWindow for your subwindows since this class provides handlers for the required events, and accessors to specify the desired size of the window. The sash behaviour in the base class can be used, optionally, to make the windows user-resizable.


When a window receives an OnCalculateLayout event, it should call SetRect in the given event object, to be the old supplied rectangle minus whatever space the window takes up. It should also set its own size accordingly. wx.adv.SashLayoutWindow.OnCalculateLayout generates an OnQueryLayoutInfo event which it sends to itself to determine the orientation, alignment and size of the window, which it gets from internal member variables set by the application.

The algorithm works by starting off with a rectangle equal to the whole frame client area. It iterates through the frame children, generating LayoutAlgorithm.OnCalculateLayout events which subtract the window size and return the remaining rectangle for the next window to process. It is assumed (by wx.adv.SashLayoutWindow.OnCalculateLayout ) that a window stretches the full dimension of the frame client, according to the orientation it specifies. For example, a horizontal window will stretch the full width of the remaining portion of the frame client area. In the other orientation, the window will be fixed to whatever size was specified by LayoutAlgorithm.OnQueryLayoutInfo. An alignment setting will make the window ‘stick’ to the left, top, right or bottom of the remaining client area. This scheme implies that order of window creation is important. Say you wish to have an extra toolbar at the top of the frame, a project window to the left of the MDI client window, and an output window above the status bar. You should therefore create the windows in this order: toolbar, output window, project window. This ensures that the toolbar and output window take up space at the top and bottom, and then the remaining height in-between is used for the project window.

wx.adv.LayoutAlgorithm is quite independent of the way in which LayoutAlgorithm.OnCalculateLayout chooses to interpret a window’s size and alignment. Therefore you could implement a different window class with a new LayoutAlgorithm.OnCalculateLayout event handler, that has a more sophisticated way of laying out the windows. It might allow specification of whether stretching occurs in the specified orientation, for example, rather than always assuming stretching. (This could, and probably should, be added to the existing implementation).

events Events Emitted by this Class

Handlers bound for the following event types will receive one of the wx.adv.QueryLayoutInfoEvent wx.adv.CalculateLayoutEvent parameters.

  • EVT_QUERY_LAYOUT_INFO: Process a wxEVT_QUERY_LAYOUT_INFO event, to get size, orientation and alignment from a window. See wx.adv.QueryLayoutInfoEvent.
  • EVT_CALCULATE_LAYOUT: Process a wxEVT_CALCULATE_LAYOUT event, which asks the window to take a ‘bite’ out of a rectangle provided by the algorithm. See wx.adv.CalculateLayoutEvent.

Note that the algorithm object does not respond to events, but itself generates the previous events in order to calculate window sizes.


wx.adv.LayoutAlgorithm has nothing to do with wx.LayoutConstraints. It is an alternative way of specifying layouts for which the normal constraint system is unsuitable.

class_hierarchy Class Hierarchy

Inheritance diagram for class LayoutAlgorithm:

method_summary Methods Summary

__init__ Default constructor.
LayoutFrame Lays out the children of a normal frame.
LayoutMDIFrame Lays out the children of an MDI parent frame.
LayoutWindow Lays out the children of a normal frame or other window.

api Class API

class wx.adv.LayoutAlgorithm(Object)

Possible constructors:


LayoutAlgorithm implements layout of subwindows in MDI or SDI frames.



Default constructor.

LayoutFrame(self, frame, mainWindow=None)

Lays out the children of a normal frame.

mainWindow is set to occupy the remaining space. This function simply calls LayoutWindow .

Return type:


LayoutMDIFrame(self, frame, rect=None)

Lays out the children of an MDI parent frame.

If rect is not None, the given rectangle will be used as a starting point instead of the frame’s client area. The MDI client window is set to occupy the remaining space.

Return type:


LayoutWindow(self, parent, mainWindow=None)

Lays out the children of a normal frame or other window.


Return type: