Some Basic Questions about Python

[Ken Seehof]

Moshe Zadka <moshez at zadka.site.co.il> says:

> On Mon, 26 Mar 2001 15:14:05 -0500, "Bill Walker" <bwalker at earth1.net>
wrote:
>
> > 1) If I write an application and want to pass it on to others who may
not
> > have Python installed, how do I do this? I understand there is no
compiler
> > for
> > Python and Tk yet that generates .exe files.
>
> There is, and you don't want to use it.

Sure you do.  It's http://starship.python.net/crew/gmcm/installer_dnld.html

It makes executables for Windows and Linux.  Typical results on Windows
are around 500K depending on what modules you import.  I haven't used
it on Linux.

> > 2) Can I distribute the Python install file along with my app without
> > violating a copyright or license?
>
> Yes, and that is a much better way.
> But you don't want to trust some stranger on usenet --- read the license
> yourself.

I think the licensing is the same whether you use Gordons installer or
include python.  (I'm not a lawyer, so ignore this).

> > 3) Better yet, can I include only the base files needed to run my
> > application with the source code? Say Pythonw.exe and only the
appropriate
> > DLLs, libs, etc.
>
> Why the hell? Any windows app comes with 10mb of useless crap anyway,
> why break tradition? ;-)
> More seriously, disk space is cheap, your time isn't.

Yeah, never mind that there are several reasons to make a very small
distributable standalone application (fast download, put it on a floppy,
no install step, etc.)

On the other hand, since we can assume that whoever is running your
application is a programmer anyway, they obviously need python for
other reasons even if they don't know it yet.  Therefore you should
force them to install python too.  It's for their own good.  :-)

- Ken