Samir Patel wrote:
> Can I use this to distribute quixote application on a machine which does not
> have python installed? I was under impression that qx_distutils needs python
> installed on target machine, but your suggestion tells me that I can use it
> with py2exe to create a self contain distribution program for quixote.

I spoke too soon: I couldn't get it to work either. I think I misquoted
Andrew; he may have been talking about a different distutils operation,
not py2exe (maybe a source distribution?).

Here's a cheap trick to get it working. You're not going to like it,
though. ;-)

-- copy all your PTL files and .ptlc files to the program directory,
using the data_files parameter of your setup() call. You'll also need to
include __init__.py files, if your PTL files are in packages
(subdirectories). This implies that you have precompiled all of your
.ptlc files (see below). This is prone to error, just be careful to get
your data_files dictionary correct.

-- To the top of your driver script (the one that will become your EXE),
add these two lines:

     import sys
     sys.path.append('.')

This will let your py2exe-packaged interpreter look in the program
directory for importable modules.

Get the idea? Basically, you're not including your PTL data in the
py2exe zipfile at all. You're just putting them in your pgoram
directory, and telling your interpreter that it can look there when
trying to import modules.

Why include the .ptlc files? If you don't, then Quixote will try to
compile your .ptl files at runtime, and will attempt to write the .ptlc
files to the program directory. But your users may not have write
permissions on the program directory, and this will fail.

This is very ugly, I know. But it's the best I can come up with right
now. Pray that a wiser head provides a more elegant answer!

-- Graham