Welcome to the "PC" subdirectory of the Python distribution

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This "PC" subdirectory contains complete project files to make

several older PC ports of Python, as well as all the PC-specific

Python source files. It should be located in the root of the

Python distribution, and there should be directories "Modules",

"Objects", "Python", etc. in the parent directory of this "PC"

subdirectory. Be sure to read the documentation in the Python

distribution.

Python requires library files such as string.py to be available in

one or more library directories. The search path of libraries is

set up when Python starts. To see the current Python library search

path, start Python and enter "import sys" and "print sys.path".

All PC ports use this scheme to try to set up a module search path:

1) The script location; the current directory without script.

2) The PYTHONPATH variable, if set.

3) For Win32 platforms (NT/95), paths specified in the Registry.

4) Default directories lib, lib/win, lib/test, lib/tkinter;

these are searched relative to the environment variable

PYTHONHOME, if set, or relative to the executable and its

ancestors, if a landmark file (Lib/string.py) is found ,

or the current directory (not useful).

5) The directory containing the executable.

The best installation strategy is to put the Python executable (and

DLL, for Win32 platforms) in some convenient directory such as

C:/python, and copy all library files and subdirectories (using XCOPY)

to C:/python/lib. Then you don't need to set PYTHONPATH. Otherwise,

set the environment variable PYTHONPATH to your Python search path.

For example,

set PYTHONPATH=.;d:\python\lib;d:\python\lib\win;d:\python\lib\dos-8x3

There are several add-in modules to build Python programs which use

the native Windows operating environment. The ports here just make

"QuickWin" and DOS Python versions which support a character-mode

(console) environment. Look in www.python.org for Tkinter, PythonWin,

WPY and wxPython.

To make a Python port, start the Integrated Development Environment

(IDE) of your compiler, and read in the native "project file"

(or makefile) provided. This will enable you to change any source

files or build settings so you can make custom builds.

pyconfig.h An important configuration file specific to PC's.

config.c The list of C modules to include in the Python PC

version. Manually edit this file to add or

remove Python modules.

testpy.py A Python test program. Run this to test your

Python port. It should produce copious output,

ending in a report on how many tests were OK, how many

failed, and how many were skipped. Don't worry about

skipped tests (these test unavailable optional features).

Additional files and subdirectories for 32-bit Windows

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python_nt.rc Resource compiler input for python15.dll.

dl_nt.c

Additional sources used for 32-bit Windows features.

getpathp.c Default sys.path calculations (for all PC platforms).

dllbase_nt.txt A (manually maintained) list of base addresses for

various DLLs, to avoid run-time relocation.

Note for Windows 3.x and DOS users

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Neither Windows 3.x nor DOS is supported any more. The last Python

version that supported these was Python 1.5.2; the support files were

present in Python 2.0 but weren't updated, and it is not our intention

to support these platforms for Python 2.x.