How do I add panels of wrapped text in wxwidgets

Question

Here is a modification to the standard "minimal" app that nearly does what I want. The idea is to have a series of boxes running down the page that each contain a chunk of wrapped text. These text boxes will alternate with boxes containing wxListView objects.

I can see two potential sources of error:

1. Is wxStaticText the correct widget to use?

2. Is there a parameter that I haven't spotted that needs tweaking?

Here is the code, my mods to minimal.cpp are mainly in the "RightPanel" and "InnerPanel" classes and in the "extra" routine at the end.

// wxWidgets "Hello World" Program
// For compilers that support precompilation, includes "wx/wx.h".
#include <wx/wxprec.h>
#ifndef WX_PRECOMP
  #include <wx/wx.h>
#endif

class MyApp : public wxApp {
public:
  virtual bool OnInit();
  };
class MyFrame : public wxFrame {
public:
  MyFrame();
private:
  void OnHello(wxCommandEvent& event);
  void OnExit(wxCommandEvent& event);
  void OnAbout(wxCommandEvent& event);
  void extra();
  };
enum { ID_Hello = 1 };

wxIMPLEMENT_APP(MyApp);

bool MyApp::OnInit() {
  MyFrame *frame = new MyFrame();
  frame->Show(true);
  return true;
  }

MyFrame::MyFrame() : wxFrame(NULL, wxID_ANY, "Hello World") {
  wxMenu *menuFile = new wxMenu;
  menuFile->Append(ID_Hello, "&Hello...\tCtrl-H",
                   "Help string shown in status bar for this menu item");
  menuFile->AppendSeparator();
  menuFile->Append(wxID_EXIT);
  wxMenu *menuHelp = new wxMenu;
  menuHelp->Append(wxID_ABOUT);
  wxMenuBar *menuBar = new wxMenuBar;
  menuBar->Append(menuFile, "&File");
  menuBar->Append(menuHelp, "&Help");
  SetMenuBar( menuBar );
  CreateStatusBar();
  SetStatusText("Welcome to wxWidgets!");
  Bind(wxEVT_MENU, &MyFrame::OnHello, this, ID_Hello);
  Bind(wxEVT_MENU, &MyFrame::OnAbout, this, wxID_ABOUT);
  Bind(wxEVT_MENU, &MyFrame::OnExit, this, wxID_EXIT);

  extra();
  }

void MyFrame::OnExit(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event)) {
  Close(true);
  }
void MyFrame::OnAbout(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event)) {
  wxMessageBox("This is a wxWidgets Hello World example",
                 "About Hello World", wxOK | wxICON_INFORMATION);
  }
void MyFrame::OnHello(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event)) {
    wxLogMessage("Hello world from wxWidgets!");
  }

//--------------------------------------------
#include  "wx/splitter.h"
//--------------------------------------------
struct LeftPanel : public wxPanel  {
  LeftPanel(wxWindow* parent) : wxPanel(parent, wxID_ANY) {
    SetBackgroundColour(0xcbc0ff);
    }
  };

struct InnerPanel : public wxPanel  {
  InnerPanel(wxWindow* parent) : wxPanel(parent, wxID_ANY) {
    char *msg = "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a long piece of "
                "text really should be wrapped"
                " ... but ... "
                "It is a truth universally acknowledged that great words will "
                "be misquoted";
    auto st = new wxStaticText( this, wxID_ANY, msg );
    st->SetBackgroundColour(0xf5f5f5);

    auto sizer = new wxBoxSizer(wxHORIZONTAL);
    sizer->AddSpacer(10);
    sizer->Add(st, wxSizerFlags(0).Expand().Border(wxALL, 5));
    sizer->AddSpacer(10);
    st->Wrap(-1);

    SetSizer(sizer);
    }
  };

struct RightPanel : public wxPanel  {
  RightPanel(wxWindow* parent) : wxPanel(parent, wxID_ANY) {
    SetBackgroundColour(0xeeccaa);
    wxFont fnt(wxFontInfo(12).FaceName("Arial"));
    SetFont(fnt);

    auto sizer = new wxBoxSizer(wxVERTICAL);
    for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
      auto p = new InnerPanel(this);
      sizer->Add(p, wxSizerFlags(0).Expand());
      sizer->AddSpacer(10);
      }
    SetSizer(sizer);
    }
  };

void MyFrame::extra() {
  SetClientSize(wxSize(500, 600));

  auto vSplitter = new wxSplitterWindow(this, wxID_ANY);
  vSplitter->SetSashGravity(0.5);
  vSplitter->SetMinimumPaneSize(50);

  auto rPanel = new RightPanel(vSplitter);
  auto lPanel = new LeftPanel(vSplitter);
  vSplitter->SplitVertically(lPanel, rPanel, -300);

  wxBoxSizer* sizer = new wxBoxSizer(wxHORIZONTAL);
  sizer->Add(vSplitter, wxSizerFlags(1).Expand() );
  SetSizer(sizer);
  }

There's a wxSplitterWindow in there so that I can see whether the text rewraps as I change the width of an outer panel.

Answer 1

wxStaticText doesn't wrap the text automatically, but you can wrap it manually using its Wrap() method. So if you add a call to e.g.

st->Wrap(GetTextExtent("It is a truth universall acknowledged, that").x);

to your code after creating st, it will wrap at this condition. You can, of course, also define a wxEVT_SIZE event handler rewrapping it dynamically.