pythoncard-users

RE: [Pythoncard-users] Moving to python 2.4 problems

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

> I think the pain here is that a person with some Python=20
> experience, enough to install and use PythonCard, may still=20
> not be experienced enough to confidently replace one major=20
> Python release with another.

I don't know about that..  When I switched to Python 2.4, I know
that I was surprised at the amount of work that I needed to do...

But it wasn't hard, nor really unexpected.  I just forgot that=20
I had packages in the site-packages directory.  I usually=20
keep most of my software in c:\develope using .pth files...

I habitually keep any software I install in c:\installers so that
I can re-install simply....

> for no reason, after the fact.  My experience is that=20
> multiple installations are more trouble than upgrade=20
> conflicts, but that's just me.

I would really say that depends on the OS.  And how much effort=20
you wish to take. =20

Effort in....

	1) Making sure that the packages you install work under both
		versions...  (Or ensure that you have two different
		packages, one for n.n and one for x.x)

	2) Making "scripts / batch files" that will run one python
		or the other.  (Or enabling switching between the two,
etc)

	3) Keeping it straight in your head...  |-)

		- Benjamin

>=20
> pyt...@li... wrote on=20
> 07/22/2005 03:14:54
> AM:
>=20
> >
> > It's quite okay to have multiple Python installations if=20
> that's what=20
> > you want to do. The problem is that it's not what *most*=20
> people want=20
> > to do. Democracy's only a good thing if you agree with the policies!
> >
>=20
>=20
>=20
> -------------------------------------------------------
> SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration=20
> Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps,=20
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> everything you need to get up to speed, fast.=20
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> _______________________________________________
> Pythoncard-users mailing list Pyt...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pythoncard-users
>=20

[Pythoncard-users] Re: Moving to python 2.4 problems

[normanwinn <nor...@on...>]

Thank you for the replies. I am not going to deal with each comment on 
the difficulty of upgrading in the Python world but give my further 
thoughts.

What I think is needed when upgrading is the offer to take the simple 
path. That is to get rid of the old and install the new. In the world of 
Basic (that is what we all want to replace, isn't it?) I would be 
offered such a choice. OK, I may not get offered an upgrade path from 
version 1 but would be from 2.3 to 2.4, say.

I know that it is a lot of tedious work to analyse each bit of user code 
to test where it will break under a new version and offer to convert. 
But if the FOSS world really believes that is can carry the average user 
then this work will need to be done. If that is not what people want to 
do then they should say so.

In the case of PythonCard itself it seemed reasonable to believe that 
if,  when I invoke Python, I get 2.4 then after running 'python setup.py 
install' in the PythonCard directory that all would be well. I looked in 
the 'tools\codeEditor' folder and there is no setup.py there.

It is possible that the problems are mine. In truth, the only time I 
have felt I really understood what is going on in computing is when I 
programmed in assembler (and in C), either on various computers or 
micro-controllers. There, one has to understand what is happening 
everywhere, in memory, in registers et al. I seem incapable of 'knowing' 
when I can't see the whole picture. No doubt it is laziness that has 
stopped me from getting the whole Python picture.

Once again, thank you for your replies, but I think I think I give this 
a miss for now. Life is too short,

Norman


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[Pythoncard-users] Re: Moving to python 2.4 problems

[normanwinn <nor...@on...>]

Hi,

I'm glad there was a further response to this thread as I think I was a 
little harsh in adding the comment 'life's too short' to my last 
response. I really appreciate the time and effort put in for no 
remuneration. I did persist and re-installed python 2.4, got rid of 2.3 
and then uninstalled and loaded up the most recent PythonCard. Apart 
from a detour with the Windows XP 'Open With' cock-up (does anyone else 
suffer from that one) which lost the file assocations for python, all 
became functional.

However, I did have to read up about the new version of wxPython 
(2.6.1u) as one now has to run something to tell the python shell which 
version of wxPython to use. Again, I do think they should make the 
default behaviour in the installer do this. I also got complaints from 
the PIL library saying I had the wrong version even though it was the 
one that came with 2.4. This was solved with a further download.

I was re-motivated to get PythonCard working as I saw an example I liked 
- the RanchBiz application shown at: 
http://members.shaw.ca/wexsessa/RanchBiz/

Unfortunately I got more trouble here. I saved the code pages as .py 
files but they had html markup in them. Then I cut and pasted the code 
and now am trying to solve indentation errors (thank you Code Editor for 
telling me about these). Here is an example (actually, this one is 
'Invalid syntx'):

>         if dateISO2 and within<(self.self.colWidth-2):  # ignore clicks near col boundaries
>                 return periodDates[clickCol].strftime(ISODATE)
>         else:
>             return None
>         else:
>             return self.periodDates[clickCol].strftime(ISODATE)

This seems wrong. I commented out the last two lines which could never 
get executed anyway, solved another indentation problem and TabNanny 
reported OK.

Then got into trouble with this section:

> if __name__ == '__main__':
>     app = model.PythonCardApp(Occupancy)
>     app.MainLoop()

Seems there is no 'model.PythonCardApp' attribute. Using 
dir(PythonCard.model) I found an attribute 'Application' and tried that. 
Then remembered the wonderful 'Find Files' which appeared to confirm my 
guess. Got further but now had error messages I could not decipher.

I tried mailing the author of RanchBiz but he seems to no longer be at 
that address. I had to change 'import from PythonCardPrototype' to 
'import from PythonCard' so maybe this stuff is quite old. I do wish web 
pages had an obligatory time stamp.

I then had a look at Stani's editor, SPE. This came with wxGlade so I 
gave this a whirl. Quite impressive. Trouble is that, after getting 
through a nice design phase, to actually do anthing you have to get into 
the guts of wxPython. IMO, the PythonCard route, while initially less 
visually stimulating, is easier. What I did notice on my wxGlade tour is 
that they seem to have their sizers sorted out. Has this become possible 
with the recent wx changes?

I realise that much of what I say should be on either the wx or python 
lists. I can't face the mail flood that subscribing to those leads to. 
Thanks once again to all those who develop PythonCard and so kindly 
reply to our problems,

Norman


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