Experiences with Py2Exe

[Isaac Rodriguez]

Hi,

I am looking for feedback from people that has used or still uses
Py2Exe. I love to program in python, and I would like to use it to
write support tools for our development team, but I cannot require
everyone to install python in their machines, so I was thinking that
Py2Exe would help on that.

The support tools I write are mostly command line driven (no GUI), but
in the future, I would like to write some expert applications that will
contain GUI. I was thinking on using wxPython for the GUI, so I was
wondering how well behaves Py2Exe with the wxPython module.

Other modules I use besides the standard modules are CTypes and the
Perforce python module p4.py. I try not to use any of the win32 stuff,
but I can see how I will have to for some utilitites, so if anyone has
experience with the win32 modules and Py2Exe, any feedback will be
highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Isaac.

[Antoine De Groote]

Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

Hi,

I am looking for feedback from people that has used or still uses
Py2Exe. I love to program in python, and I would like to use it to
write support tools for our development team, but I cannot require
everyone to install python in their machines, so I was thinking that
Py2Exe would help on that.

The support tools I write are mostly command line driven (no GUI), but
in the future, I would like to write some expert applications that will
contain GUI. I was thinking on using wxPython for the GUI, so I was
wondering how well behaves Py2Exe with the wxPython module.

I did a project with wxPython and py2exe. Just great :-) I also used
Inno Setup (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) to create an
installer. You should be able to learn/use both in one day.

Other modules I use besides the standard modules are CTypes and the
Perforce python module p4.py. I try not to use any of the win32 stuff,
but I can see how I will have to for some utilitites, so if anyone has
experience with the win32 modules and Py2Exe, any feedback will be
highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Isaac.

[Tim N. van der Leeuw]

Hi Isaac,
Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

Hi,

I am looking for feedback from people that has used or still uses
Py2Exe. I love to program in python, and I would like to use it to
write support tools for our development team, but I cannot require
everyone to install python in their machines, so I was thinking that
Py2Exe would help on that.

The support tools I write are mostly command line driven (no GUI), but
in the future, I would like to write some expert applications that will
contain GUI. I was thinking on using wxPython for the GUI, so I was
wondering how well behaves Py2Exe with the wxPython module.

My experiences with Py2Exe and wxPython are very good. In fact, the
samples included with Py2Exe include some wxPython samples.

It's also possible to get PyGTK working with Py2exe, but it's a bit
more convoluted. However, the examples on the PyGTK and esp. Py2exe
websites should get you there.

What was more difficult was Amara, but with some tweaking even that
eventually worked.

I have no experience with CTypes, so I can only assume that it will
work... p4.py might be more reason to worry but you'd have to ask
around or try.

PythonWin was painless, no issues at all getting pythonwin/com etc.
stuff to work.

Other modules I use besides the standard modules are CTypes and the
Perforce python module p4.py. I try not to use any of the win32 stuff,
but I can see how I will have to for some utilitites, so if anyone has
experience with the win32 modules and Py2Exe, any feedback will be
highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Isaac.

[Larry Bates]

Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

Hi,

I am looking for feedback from people that has used or still uses
Py2Exe. I love to program in python, and I would like to use it to
write support tools for our development team, but I cannot require
everyone to install python in their machines, so I was thinking that
Py2Exe would help on that.

The support tools I write are mostly command line driven (no GUI), but
in the future, I would like to write some expert applications that will
contain GUI. I was thinking on using wxPython for the GUI, so I was
wondering how well behaves Py2Exe with the wxPython module.

Other modules I use besides the standard modules are CTypes and the
Perforce python module p4.py. I try not to use any of the win32 stuff,
but I can see how I will have to for some utilitites, so if anyone has
experience with the win32 modules and Py2Exe, any feedback will be
highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Isaac.

I've used py2exe extensively over the last couple of years to package up
everything from console apps to Windows services. I've found it to work
extremely well and it produces something that is easily distributable on Windows
platform. In addition to py2exe I also employ Inno Setup
(http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) to create a Windows installer for my
applications. Inno can take care of myriad of installation "stuff" that must be
done to make a Windows app easy to distribute for "Windows users". This
combination works VERY well.

It takes a little practice, but it works just fine with wxPython, win32all
extensions, ctypes, etc. If I'm not mistaken, author of ctypes (Thomas Heller)
and py2exe are the same person). I can't speak to Perforce python module as
I've never used it myself. Start with a small console app and them move on to
more complex applications. You may want to take a look at the py2exe newsgroup
(gmane.comp.python.py2exe) for any questions.

-Larry Bates

[Isaac Rodriguez]

>
I did a project with wxPython and py2exe. Just great :-) I also used
Inno Setup (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) to create an
installer. You should be able to learn/use both in one day.

Do you have a specific reason for using Inno Setup and not a Windows
Installer based setup? Will Inno Setup play especially well with py3exe
or was it just the learning curve of using a Windows Installer setup?

I am asking this because I have a lot of experience using the Windows
Installer service, and I also have all the productivity tools available
to create an installer for my tools if I needed to, but now I am
curious about this Inno Setup.

Thanks,

Isaac.

[Larry Bates]

Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

>I did a project with wxPython and py2exe. Just great :-) I also used
Inno Setup (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) to create an
installer. You should be able to learn/use both in one day.

Do you have a specific reason for using Inno Setup and not a Windows
Installer based setup? Will Inno Setup play especially well with py3exe
or was it just the learning curve of using a Windows Installer setup?

I am asking this because I have a lot of experience using the Windows
Installer service, and I also have all the productivity tools available
to create an installer for my tools if I needed to, but now I am
curious about this Inno Setup.

Thanks,

Isaac.

Inno Setup (like Python) is open source so there is no cost.
Normally you have to purchase something to get the Windows Installer.
Since you have the source code (rarely needed because Inno is so
powerful and configurable), you aren't at the mercy of the Windows
Installer (unless they now give it away and I missed something).
I don't think Inno is especially suited for py2exe apps, it just
works very well, is free, and seems to do everything people want in
an installer.

-Larry Bates

[Antoine De Groote]

Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

>I did a project with wxPython and py2exe. Just great :-) I also used
Inno Setup (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) to create an
installer. You should be able to learn/use both in one day.

Do you have a specific reason for using Inno Setup and not a Windows
Installer based setup? Will Inno Setup play especially well with py3exe
or was it just the learning curve of using a Windows Installer setup?

I am asking this because I have a lot of experience using the Windows
Installer service, and I also have all the productivity tools available
to create an installer for my tools if I needed to, but now I am
curious about this Inno Setup.

Thanks,

Isaac.

The main reason for using Inno Setup is that it is free. Then I quickly
saw that it is powerful and easy to use. And I don't like Microsoft too
much in general, and that's also one of the reasons why I preferred to
stay away from MSI...

I've never used py3exe though, and I can't find an homepage about it, so
I don't know how it is related to py2exe...

[Ben Finney]

Antoine De Groote <an*****@vo.luwrites:

Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

Do you have a specific reason for using Inno Setup and not a
Windows Installer based setup?

The main reason for using Inno Setup is that it is free. Then I
quickly saw that it is powerful and easy to use. And I don't like
Microsoft too much in general, and that's also one of the reasons
why I preferred to stay away from MSI...

To clarify, Inno Setup is released under a free-software license:

<URL:http://www.jrsoftware.org/files/is/license.txt>

which makes it a better bet than non-free software as infrastructure
to build upon.

--
\ "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without |
`\ result." -- Winston Churchill |
_o__) |
Ben Finney

[Fredrik Lundh]

Isaac Rodriguez wrote:

I am asking this because I have a lot of experience using the Windows
Installer service, and I also have all the productivity tools available
to create an installer for my tools if I needed to

just go ahead and use it.

py2exe generates an EXE and (usually) a bunch of related files:

http://www.py2exe.org/index.cgi/FAQ

any tool that can wrap that up and install it on another machine works
just fine.

</F>

[MaR]

We use py2exe on regular basis for most of our app's, both for internal
and external distribution.
We then pack it to an installer using NSIS
(http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) which is also free :o)