RE: [Pythoncard-users] time to share your PythonCard gripes and likes

[Schollnick, B. <Ben...@xe...>]

Bruce,

> I would like to see pythoncard more usable for making=20
> education resources and the single biggest difficulty for me=20
> was trying to make a stand alone application from by code=20
> that I could distribute easily to students who are general=20
> psychology students with limited computer skills (not enough=20
> to install and use python in my experience).  Phil Edwards=20
> reportedly has some variety of solution to this as per his posting..

That is not a OpenSource, Python, or PythonCard failing....

If you do not wish your students or "other people" to be forced to
install python and/or WxPython/PythonCard then you need to decide
how to deal with that.

There are two ways that I am aware of to deal with this.  I have used
both with my software and not had any significant problems.

1) McMillian Installer...  Web Site is down, but the software is still
available
	although unsupported on the Windows side per the Author.... =20

2) Py2Exe - Currently supported, not quite as polished as McMillian's
installer
	but is still under development.  The only con is that the
Documentation
	is very sparse.

Both of these packages allow you to bundle up your python software into
a Windows
executable file, with *no* dependencies.....  So your students would not
need
to install any other software.

Combine that with InnoSetup, a free Windows Installer application, and
you can
have your software installed with next to no issues.....

> I think that "Learning Object" can be made easily with=20
> pythoncard but distribution of them in learning object=20
> repositories so other instructors can
> share the wealth is turning out to be a serious problem. =20

I am not quite following you here....

A "Learning Object" is your application???=20

Distributing software can be as difficult as you make it.  Especially on
the
Windows platform, dealing with the registry, etc.

But it seems like you are making this into a larger problem than it is.
Python is extremely portable, even more so with McMillian's Installer or
Py2EXE.

If you wish to try either Installer or Py2EXE feel free to ask if you
need
assistance.

		- Benjamin