[Visualpython-users] Python 2.5 version for Windows available

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Thanks to the suggestion to compile Numeric from source on Windows, I=20
was able to post versions of VPython for Python 2.5, both Visual 3 and=20
Visual 4. This is a stop-gap measure since we all realize the need to=20
move to the new NumPy.

I had to Google to find the following syntax for compiling Numeric on=20
Windows using Msys and MinGW:

/c/python25/python.exe setup.py build =96compiler=3Dmingw32 install

In the process I updated in CVS the install instructions INSTALL.txt,=20
which are now essentially identical for both Visual 3 and Visual 4. I=20
hope this is useful to Arthur and others who may be able to work on=20
Visual. I wouldn't have been able to make these releases at this time=20
had it not been that little effort was required, once it was pointed out=20
how to get around the lack of a binary distribution of Numeric for=20
Python 2.5 on Windows.

FYI, in the process of testing the new releases I found that Python 2.5=20
is more restrictive than previous versions. It's pickier about=20
indentation consistency, and "from __future__ import division" must be=20
the very first line in a program. These new restrictions required minor=20
fixes to a few example programs.

Bruce Sherwood