*Newbie Question* --> Is it viable to distribute Python apps over the Internet?

Jp Calderone exarkun at intarweb.us
Mon Apr 21 13:38:13 EDT 2003


On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 10:14:39AM -0700, Denis Agar wrote:
> Hi, I'm extremely new to python. I've spent the majority of my waking
> hours this easter reseaching Python GUIs, compilers, and the language
> in general. It's been arduous trying to piece together knowledge from
> different places but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. A little about
> me: My only other (major) experience with programming was a semester
> of Visual Basic in school. I really wanted to get away from the
> hodgepodge of bad vibes coming from Microsoft, and was suggested
> almost unanimously Python by a forum (http://www.shareaza.com/forum)
> 
> I'm blabbering! Anyway, my problem is this. I tried to compile a
> simple Hello World program into something runnable on non-python
> computers, and it came out being 7MB in size. Is there something I'm
> doing wrong? Just so you know, I do know somewhat what I'm doing. I
> know that it's incorporating all of the GUI. So is there a way to not
> incoporate all of the gui, and still have a functional program? I'm
> thinkin in the 800k range for a simple program? The reason I ask is
> because I'm thinking of porting something I made in VB to Python
> before I develop it any further.
> 

  Though 7MB is slightly larger than the numbers I've seen, it is in the
right ballpark.

  It's easy to see why.  You're distributing an entire runtime environment,
instead of just your application.  When you write VB code, you're only
distributing your application.

  It is unlikely you'll be able to get your app down to 800kB, though 3MB or
4MB may be likely.  If size is your main concern, I'd recommend simply *not*
bundling the Python runtime with your application.  This will give you a
"Hello world" that is 1kB or 2kB.  It will run on all machined with the
required runtime libraries, and you can simply point everyone else towards
http://www.python.org/ for a free download of what they're missing.

  Jp

-- 
Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short.  Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
Silently scheming,
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide.
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
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