No icon under Windows 7 in a message dialog

[Boštjan Mejak]

There is no icon present in a message dialog if the style of a dialog
is constructed by using the flag wx.ICON_QUESTION and/or other
wx.ICON_* flags. How come?

[werner]

Works for me in wxPython demo - Win7, Py2.7 and wxPython 2.9.2.4

Werner

[Boštjan Mejak]

I noted something interesting... If I enclose the code of the message
dialog in a "with" statement, I don't get that icon shown; but if I
don't use the "with" statement, the icon is shown. So now I ask you,
is that a bug in wxPython?

with wx.MessageDialog(self,
caption='Exit Confirmation',
message='Do you want to exit the
application?',
style=wx.YES_NO | wx.ICON_QUESTION) \
as dialog:
if dialog.ShowModal() == wx.ID_YES:
self.Destroy()

I love the "with" statement because it automatically takes care of the
destruction of the message dialog and eliminates any memory leaks that
way. Anyway, my code worked (i.e. displayed an icon in the message
dialog) in the 2.8 version of wxPython, but it does not do the same
thing under 2.9. What should I do different to make this work?

[Robin Dunn]

On 10/11/11 4:07 AM, Bo�tjan Mejak wrote:
> I noted something interesting... If I enclose the code of the message
> dialog in a "with" statement, I don't get that icon shown; but if I
> don't use the "with" statement, the icon is shown.

Are you sure about that? Try it with the attached sample.

> So now I ask you,
> is that a bug in wxPython?

No. On Windows 7 wx is able to use a new native dialog for the message
dialog implementation, called the task dialog. This is done to help
conform to new platform standards and to give it a more up to date look
and feel. (This same native dialog is also used for wx.ProgressDialog
if I remember correctly.) Apparently the native task dialog does not
have an equivalent for wx.ICON_QUESTION, but it does for ERROR, WARNING,
and INFORMATION. See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb760540(VS.85).aspx

--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman
http://wxPython.org

[Boštjan Mejak]

The native task dialog does not have an equivalent for wx.ICON_QUESTION, but it does for ERROR, WARNING, and INFORMATION.

You are absolutely right. So how can I fix this? 

[Cody]

Hi,

There is nothing to fix. The new ui doesn't have a question icon dialog.

If you want one with a question icon you can try using the
GenericMessageDialog in wx.lib.agw.

Cody

[Robin Dunn]

Choose one:

a. live with it as-is
b. choose a different icon style
c. make your own custom dialog class
d. use a generic message dialog from wx.lib.agw or wx.lib.dialogs

[Boštjan Mejak]

Well, Robin, I obviously can't choose a different icon style. Since my message dialog is of a "question" nature, I can't choose some other icon. It would be nice if you could hack wxPython in a way to make the icon appear. Is that theoretically possible?

[Robin Dunn]

In theory anything is possible. In reality, no.

[Mike Driscoll]

Why not just roll your own wx.Dialog that looks like a wx.MessageDialog? Or what about using the GenericMessageDialog (from wx.lib.agw.genericmessagedialog) ?

-------------------
Mike Driscoll

Blog:   http://blog.pythonlibrary.org

[Tim Roberts]

Bo�tjan Mejak wrote:

Well, Robin, I obviously can't choose a different icon style. Since my message dialog is of a "question" nature, I can't choose some other icon. It would be nice if you could hack wxPython in a way to make the icon appear. Is that theoretically possible?

I'm not sure you see the point here.� The Microsoft user interface gurus have determined that the "question mark" icon is more confusing to users than helpful.� Perhaps that's because their user interface studies told them users were frightened by it, or overreacted to it, or perhaps it's because of some complicated international connotation attached to the ? symbol -- I don't know the exact reason.� But the point is that you aren't supposed to use the "question mark" icon any more.� No other applications on Windows 7 are going to show it either, and you want your app to look familiar.

-- 
Tim Roberts, ti...@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

[Boštjan Mejak]

Very well put. Thank you very much, sir.