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<h1>Building 'standalone' PythonCard Applications</h1>
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<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>This document is targeted at developers who have successfully completed a
project based on PythonCard and now wish to distribute their work to a wider
audience. The information given here was gathered with reference to
<a href="http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net">PythonCard Version 0.7.2</a>. It
is inevitable that some (or all!) of this document will go out of date. If
so, please either post a message to the PythonCard users mailing list or
send email to <em>phil at linux2000 dot com</em>, and I'll update it.</p>
<p>My motivation in writing this document is fairly straightforward. Having
got my <a href="http://www.linux2000.com/pimp.html">PIMP</a> application
working pretty much the way I wanted it, I needed to look into how to turn it
into a single executable, with an easy-to-use install and un-install routine.
My ultimate goal was to produce something so straightforward that my mum
could install it on her Windows XP computer without any problems. :-)</p>
<h2>Tools Required - Hardware</h2>
<p>As a PythonCard developer, you will already have a computer with Python,
wxPython and PythonCard itself already installed. This will be the machine
you use for coding and testing your PythonCard applications. <em>This machine
will be of no use whatsoever to you in testing your application as a
standalone piece of software</em>.</p>
<p>The reason for this is precisely because it already has everything
installed that is required to run your application. In order to be able to
properly test a standalone PythonCard application, you will need access to a
machine which explicitly does not have the above installed - you need to be
confident that the behaviour you are seeing from your app is because you have
packaged it correctly, rather than just being as a result of it being run on
a machine with all the necessary components already installed.</p>
<p>The only 100% reliable way of doing this is to have a separate machine for
testing your application and its installer. I achieved this by using VMWare
workstation (<a href="http://www.vmware.com">http://www.vmware.com</a>)
on my Linux PC and setting up 2 'guest' machines, both running Windows XP -
one with Python and the other bits installed for doing the development and
debugging work, the other set aside purely for testing the results of my
work.</p>
<p>In the remainder of this document, where I talk about the <em>development
machine</em>, I'll be referring to the PC where you do your coding and the
building of your standalone application. If you see me talking about the
<em>testing machine</em>, I'm referring to the machine that doesn't have
Python, etc installed.</p>
<h2>Tools Required - Software</h2>
<p>In addition to the software you already have on your development machine,
you will also need to install these packages:</p>
<ul>
<li>McMillan Installer (<a href="http://www.mcmillan-inc.com">http://www.mcmillan-inc.com</a>)
- download this and install it under C:\Python23\Installer on your
development machine.</li>
<li>Inno Setup (<a href="http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php">http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php</a>)
- download and follow the prompts in the installation wizard</li>
<li>Python for Windows Extensions (<a href="http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/">http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/</a>)
- as above</li>
</ul>
<p>At the time of writing (March 18 2004) the McMillan website has been down
for some time. It may or may not come back up again, in the meantime, you can
download a copy of McMillan Installer version 5b5 from <a href="http://www.linux2000.com/downloads/installer_5b5_5.zip">http://www.linux2000.com/downloads/installer_5b5_5.zip</a></p>
<h2>Configuring McMillan Installer</h2>
<p>Before you can do anything useful with the McMillan Installer, it needs to
be configured. To do this, click Start --> run and type <strong>cmd</strong>
to open a command line session on your development machine. Type the
following commands:</p>
<p class="code">cd C:\Python23\Installer<br /><br />
Configure.py</p>
<p>In the rest of this document, I'll be using my <a href="http://www.linux2000.com/pimp.html">PIMP</a>
application as my example of building a standalone. The directory names will
therefore reflect the way I personally like to work, your mileage may vary.
Specifically, I have a directory C:\Python23\projects\pimp where I do all my
coding, and everything else will be relative to this 'root' directory.</p>
<h2>Generating A 'Spec' File For Your Application</h2>
<p>The specification, or 'spec', file is the information used by McMillan
Installer to compile and build the standalone version of your application.
It's basically a list of the Python source files, Pythoncard resource files
and any other stuff that your Pythoncard app needs in order to run properly.
To generate the initial spec file, type these commands in a
<em>Command Prompt</em> window:</p>
<p class="code">cd C:\Python23\Installer<br /><br />
Makespec.py --icon ..\projects\pimp\pixmaps\pimp.ico
--out ..\projects\pimp ..\projects\pimp\pimp.py</p>
<p>You should replace <em>pimp.py</em> with the name of the Python script
that corresponds to the main part of your application. The icon file isn't
compulsory, but taking the time to select an icon makes your app look a
little more polished.</p>
<p>You may find at this point that you wind up with an error message saying
<em>TypeError: unpack non-sequence</em>. At the time of writing, the jury is
still out on whether this is a bug in the Installer or in wxPython. The
recommended solution is to comment out the call to
<em>RegistryImportDirector()</em> on line 225 of the <em>iu.py</em> file in
c:\python23\installer. Do the same on line 251 of the <em>mf.py</em> file and
then re-run the <em>Makespec.py</em> command from above. This issue has been
reported to Gordon as a bug, you can check the status of this item on the
McMillan web site, the URL is <a href="http://mcmillan-inc.com/cgi-bin/BTSCGI.py/BTS/editbugs?bugid=73">http://mcmillan-inc.com/cgi-bin/BTSCGI.py/BTS/editbugs?bugid=73</a>.
Thanks to Brent Fentem <bfentem (at) sbcglobal.net> for the fix.</p>
<p>At this point, you'll have a <em>basic</em> spec file in your app's root
directory, that probably looks something like this:</p>
<pre>
a = Analysis([os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\_mountzlib.py'),
os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\useUnicode.py'),
'..\\projects\\pimp\\pimp.py'],
pathex=['C:\\Python23\\Installer'])
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
exclude_binaries=1,
name='buildpimp/pimp.exe',
debug=0,
strip=0,
upx=0,
console=1 , icon='..\\projects\\pimp\\pixmaps\\pimp.ico')
coll = COLLECT( exe,
a.binaries,
strip=0,
upx=0,
name='distpimp')
</pre>
<p>The observant reader will have noticed (quite correctly) that this file
seems to consist of Python source code! This helps us immensely in
simplifying the file contents for ease of maintenance. Firstly add a line at
the top of the file to define the root directory for your application, then
modify the remainder of the spec file so it looks like this:</p>
<pre>
p = 'c:/python23/projects/pimp/' # defines project 'root' directory
a = Analysis([os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\_mountzlib.py'),
os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\useUnicode.py'),
p + 'pimp.py'],
pathex=['C:/Python23/Installer'])
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
exclude_binaries=1,
name='buildpimp/pimp.exe',
debug=0,
strip=0,
upx=0,
console=1 , icon = p + 'pixmaps/pimp.ico')
coll = COLLECT( exe,
a.binaries + \
[('pimp.rsrc.py', p + 'pimp.rsrc.py', 'DATA')],
strip=0,
upx=0,
name='distpimp')
</pre>
<p>Go back to your command prompt window, and issue this command:</p>
<p class="code">Build.py ..\projects\pimp\pimp.spec</p>
<p>The build process should now run to completion with no fatal error
messages. You will find 2 new folders have been created in your application
root directory. <em>buildpimp</em> is used purely as a temporary work area
when (re-)building the app. <em>distpimp</em> is the directory containing the
standalone version of your program. It is the contents of this directory which
need to be packaged up using Inno Setup and distributed, more on that part of
the process later.</p>
<p>You should note the line in the spec file containing <em>console=1</em>.
This causes your app to be run from a command-prompt style window, allowing
you to see any unexpected error messages. When you're happy that the app
builds and runs the way you want, you can change this to read
<em>console=0</em>.</p>
<h2>Resolving import errors</h2>
<p>The Installer does its best to analyse your source code to see what
modules you've used via Python <em>import</em> statements. For the most part,
it does an excellent job, but it needs a little help where the Pythoncard
part is concerned. Open a new <em>Command Prompt</em> window and type the
following:</p>
<p class="code">cd c:\python23\projects\pimp\distpimp<br /><br />pimp</p>
<p>The program will now abort with an error message, complaining that it was
unable to import some module or other. The precise one will depend on the
Pythoncard components that your app uses, the first one mine complained about
was <em>statictext</em>. This is where the first bit of tedious source code
editing comes in. You need to explicitly <em>import</em> all of the Pythoncard
components that your application uses. I did this the lazy way, by adding in
each component in turn, rebuilding the standalone and re-running it, until I
had no more import errors. The lines I ended up with at the top of my code
looked like this:</p>
<p class="code">
# imports required by mcmillan installer<br /><br />
from PythonCard.components import statictext, imagebutton, textfield, \
textarea, list, staticbox, checkbox, passwordfield, radiogroup, spinner, \
combobox, choice, htmlwindow, bitmapcanvas</p>
<h2>Finalizing the spec file</h2>
<p>Having resolved all the issues with the components, you now need to add all
the other parts of your application to the spec file, i.e. the Pythoncard
resource files for any child windows, any images used for buttons,
documentation files, etc. This is an <em>extremely</em> tedious task, and has
already got me thinking about writing a Pythoncard project manager app to do
all this stuff automatically...the final version of my spec file looks like
this:</p>
<pre>
p = 'c:/python23/projects/pimp/' # defines project 'root' directory
a = Analysis([os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\_mountzlib.py'),
os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\useUnicode.py'),
p + 'pimp.py'],
pathex=['C:/Python23/Installer'])
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
exclude_binaries=1,
name='buildpimp/pimp.exe',
debug=0,
strip=0,
upx=0,
console=1 , icon = p + 'pixmaps/pimp.ico')
coll = COLLECT( exe,
a.binaries + \
[('pimp.rsrc.py', p + 'pimp.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('advancedPrefsDialog.rsrc.py', p + 'advancedPrefsDialog.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('albumDialog.rsrc.py', p + 'albumDialog.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('albumEdit.rsrc.py', p + 'albumEdit.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('filterBatch.rsrc.py', p + 'filterBatch.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('filterInfo.rsrc.py', p + 'filterInfo.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('editFilter.rsrc.py', p + 'editFilter.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('helpAbout.rsrc.py', p + 'helpAbout.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('imageExportDialog.rsrc.py', p + 'imageExportDialog.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('pandlDialog.rsrc.py', p + 'pandlDialog.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('passwdDialog.rsrc.py', p + 'passwdDialog.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('picPreview.rsrc.py', p + 'picPreview.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('prefsDialog.rsrc.py', p + 'prefsDialog.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('slideShow.rsrc.py', p + 'slideShow.rsrc.py', 'DATA')] + \
[('changelog.txt', p + 'changelog.txt', 'DATA')] + \
[('readme.txt', p + 'readme.txt', 'DATA')] + \
[('doc/gpl.txt', p + 'doc/gpl.txt', 'DATA')] + \
[('doc/about.html', p + 'doc/about.html', 'DATA')] + \
[('doc/author.html', p + 'doc/author.html', 'DATA')] + \
[('doc/license.html', p + 'doc/license.html', 'DATA')] + \
[('doc/recursion.txt', p + 'doc/recursion.txt', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/album.png', p + 'pixmaps/album.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/blank.png', p + 'pixmaps/blank.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/camera.png', p + 'pixmaps/camera.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/delete.png', p + 'pixmaps/delete.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/down.png', p + 'pixmaps/down.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/exit.png', p + 'pixmaps/exit.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/export.png', p + 'pixmaps/export.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/filter.png', p + 'pixmaps/filter.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/finepix2800.png', p + 'pixmaps/finepix2800.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/forward.png', p + 'pixmaps/forward.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/fullscreen.png', p + 'pixmaps/fullscreen.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/import.png', p + 'pixmaps/import.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/info.png', p + 'pixmaps/info.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/ledgreen.png', p + 'pixmaps/ledgreen.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/ledred.png', p + 'pixmaps/ledred.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/left.png', p + 'pixmaps/left.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/locations.png', p + 'pixmaps/locations.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/mkalbum.png', p + 'pixmaps/mkalbum.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/new.png', p + 'pixmaps/new.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/nofullscreen.png', p + 'pixmaps/nofullscreen.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/open.png', p + 'pixmaps/open.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/options.png', p + 'pixmaps/options.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/padlock.png', p + 'pixmaps/padlock.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/password-big.png', p + 'pixmaps/password-big.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/password.png', p + 'pixmaps/password.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/pause.png', p + 'pixmaps/pause.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/people.png', p + 'pixmaps/people.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/play.png', p + 'pixmaps/play.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/reverse.png', p + 'pixmaps/reverse.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/right.png', p + 'pixmaps/right.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/rotatecw.png', p + 'pixmaps/rotatecw.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/rotateccw.png', p + 'pixmaps/rotateccw.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/save.png', p + 'pixmaps/save.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/slideshow.png', p + 'pixmaps/slideshow.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/stop.png', p + 'pixmaps/stop.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/up.png', p + 'pixmaps/up.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('pixmaps/view.png', p + 'pixmaps/view.png', 'DATA')] + \
[('themes/default/caption.gif', p + 'themes/default/caption.gif', 'DATA')] + \
[('themes/default/hide.gif', p + 'themes/default/hide.gif', 'DATA')] + \
[('themes/default/notescript.js', p + 'themes/default/notescript.js', 'DATA')] + \
[('themes/default/tech.gif', p + 'themes/default/tech.gif', 'DATA')],
strip=0,
upx=0,
name='distpimp')
</pre>
<p>You can now rebuild your standalone and check that it runs without any
error messages in the console window. The installer generated the standalone
version of my app in the <em>./projects/distpimp</em> on my machine. The
folder name will be whatever you called your app with 'dist' on the front. I
also found a <em>./projects/buildpimp</em> directory had been created -
according to the installers docs, this is used to store transient files during
the build process and can be ignored.</p>
<h2>Using Inno Setup</h2>
<p>Inno Setup is a lovely piece of software that allows you to package up the
contents of a directory into a single <em>.EXE</em> file that can easily be
distributed. When someone downloads this and double-clicks, it launches the
familiar series of dialogs through which a new program can be installed. It
also takes care of adding an item in <em>Control Panel --> Add and remove
programs</em> which allows your application to be removed just as easily.</p>
<p>Launch Inno Setup, and select the option to <em>Create a new script file
using the Script Wizard</em>. Click <em>OK</em>, then <em>Next</em> to launch
the wizard. I set the options on the <em>application information</em> section
as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Application name:</strong> PIMP</li>
<li><strong>Application name including version:</strong>PIMP 0.7</li>
<li><strong>Appplication publisher:</strong> Phil Edwards</li>
<li><strong>Application website:</strong> http://www.linux2000.com</li>
</ul>
<p>Click <em>Next</em> to get to the <em>Application directory</em> section.
For most people, the defaults that Inno offers should be okay, but feel free
to make amendments if required.</p>
<p>Click <em>Next</em>. You'll now see the <em>Application files</em> section.
This is probably the most important part of the process, as this is where you
tell Inno which specific files to include in the executable. Luckily, if
you've done the part with McMillan Installer correctly, everything you need
should already be there. Make sure you only include the files that your app
really needs - for example, whilst putting this document together, I couldn't
work out why PIMP kept having problems after I had installed it on the test
machine. It took me a while to figure out that I'd included a pimp.ini file
from my development machine in the SETUP.EXE produced by Inno. Taking this
out cured the problem!</p>
<p>Click <em>Next</em> to get to the <em>Application icons</em> section. You
should select whichever options you want the user to have.</p>
<p>Click <em>Next</em>. On the <em>Application documentation</em> section, I
included a copy of the GPL in text format as the license file, and a copy of
the PIMP changelog as the file to display before installation. This leads to
the interesting situation of the end user having to agree to the terms of the
GPL before being allowed to install the software! Irony is such a wonderful
thing...</p>
<p>Click <em>Next</em> a couple more times and your SETUP.EXE file will be
generated. Inno will put it in a <em>./Output</em> directory off your main
project root folder. You can now copy this file over to your test machine and
check that it does actually install and run the way you expect it to.</p>
<p>The final task in this section is to ensure you save the Inno Setup script
file that you just generated. For the record, my PIMP application generated
the following:</p>
<pre>
; Script generated by the Inno Setup Script Wizard.
; SEE THE DOCUMENTATION FOR DETAILS ON CREATING INNO SETUP SCRIPT FILES!
[Setup]
AppName=PIMP
AppVerName=PIMP 0.7
AppPublisher=Phil Edwards
AppPublisherURL=http://www.linux2000.com/pimp.html
AppSupportURL=http://www.linux2000.com/pimp.html
AppUpdatesURL=http://www.linux2000.com/pimp.html
DefaultDirName={pf}\PIMP
DefaultGroupName=PIMP
AllowNoIcons=yes
LicenseFile=C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\doc\gpl.txt
InfoBeforeFile=C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\changelog.txt
[Tasks]
; NOTE: The following entry contains English phrases ("Create a desktop icon"
; and "Additional icons"). You are free to translate them into another language
; if required.
Name: "desktopicon"; Description: "Create a &desktop icon"; GroupDescription: "Additional icons:";
Flags: unchecked
[Files]
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pimp.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\_socket.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\_sre.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\_ssl.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\_winreg.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\advancedPrefsDialog.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\albumDialog.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\albumEdit.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\changelog.txt"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\editFilter.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\filterBatch.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\filterInfo.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\helpAbout.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\imageExportDialog.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pandlDialog.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\passwdDialog.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\picPreview.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pimp.exe"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pimp.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\prefsDialog.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pyexpat.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\python23.dll"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pywintypes23.dll"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\readme.txt"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\slideShow.rsrc.py"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\win32api.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\wxmsw24h.dll"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\wxPython.helpc.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\wxPython.htmlc.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\wxPython.stc_c.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\wxPython.wxc.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\zlib.pyd"; DestDir: "{app}";
Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\doc\*"; DestDir: "{app}\doc";
Flags: ignoreversion recursesubdirs
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\pixmaps\*"; DestDir: "{app}\pixmaps";
Flags: ignoreversion recursesubdirs
Source: "C:\Python23\projects\pimp\distpimp\themes\*"; DestDir: "{app}\themes";
Flags: ignoreversion recursesubdirs
; NOTE: Don't use "Flags: ignoreversion" on any shared system files
[Icons]
Name: "{group}\PIMP"; Filename: "{app}\pimp.exe"
Name: "{userdesktop}\PIMP"; Filename: "{app}\pimp.exe"; Tasks: desktopicon
</pre>
<h2>Preparing to distribute the finished app</h2>
<p>We're almost ready to send the finished Windows version of PIMP out into
the big bad world, but there are still a couple of sharp edges that need
rubbing down.</p>
<p>Firstly, you will recall that when we built the standalone using McMillan
Installer, we set the following options in the <em>pimp.spec</em> file:</p>
<pre>
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
exclude_binaries=1,
name='buildpimp/pimp.exe',
debug=0,
strip=0,
upx=0,
console=1 , icon = p + 'pixmaps/pimp.ico')
^^^^^^^^^
</pre>
<p>This causes the program to run in a <em>command prompt</em> style window,
so we can see any run-time error messages produced. Obviously, the program
will look pretty lame if we allow it to run this way on the end-users systems.
You need to remember to change the <em>console=1</em> to read
<em>console=0</em> before doing a final build of your program.</p>
<p>Secondly, the output executable will always be called <em>SETUP.EXE</em>,
which i think is too generic. I prefer the file to include the name, version
number and preferably the build number of the program in question. Open up
the <em>pimp.iss</em> file that Inno saved and add the following line to the
end of the <em>[Setup]</em> section:</p>
<p class="code">OutputBaseFilename=pimp-0.7-1</p>
<p>There doesn't appear to be any way at present to force Inno to take this
information from an external file, so you just have to remember to update it
manually each time you release a new build of the program. Another job for
the vapor-ware Pythoncard project manager, I think!</p>
<p>As a final check immediately before releasing a new version of PIMP, I try
to remember to go also through the following checklist:</p>
<ul>
<li>Go through all of the <em>.rsrc.py</em> files and reset the
<em>position</em> parameter to '-1, -1' - the Pythoncard resource editor
will almost always set this to wherever the panel happened to be on our
screen when you saved it, which isn't always what you want.</li>
<li>If (like me!) you like to show off with screen shots of your app,
ensure that the ones on your web site reflect the latest version.</li>
<li>Check that the version and build numbers are correct in the various
files.</li>
<li>If you distribute a <em>changelog</em> and/or <em>README</em>file with
your app, check that you've updated it so that the release date is correct
and it's up to date with the latest changes.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Vaporware alert! PythonCard project manager</h2>
<p>In the process of preparing these notes, it's become painfully obvious to
me that there's a need for a project manager of some sort to assist with the
whole process of managing a PythonCard project from initial coding all the
way through to the finished Inno-based installer binary. I've made a start on
coding this, see the screenshot below for what the user interface will
(maybe) look like:</p>
<p class="imageCaption"><img src="images/projectmanager.png" alt="Project Manager Screenshot" /></p>
<p>I'm grateful for the code that Lawrie Abott originally wrote, which has
proven to be the inspiration for this project. It's probably about time I
left PIMP alone to fester for a bit, anyway. :-)</p>
<p> Page last updated: March 3rd 2004 03:00 UTC<br />
That's all for today, folks!</p>
<?php include "footer.php" ?>
<p>$Revision: 1.5 $ : $Author: kasplat $ : Last updated $Date: 2004/07/26 15:35:32 $</p>
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distrib
>
Mandriva
>
2010.0
>
i586
>
media
>
contrib-release
>
by-pkgid
>
5f5d88c6b2988e78ee210e72f14d11ca
>
files
>
924
