Newbie question: Multiple installations of Python on Windows machines

[Don Taylor]

Fuzzyman wrote:

> A lot of 'exe' installers are special types of zip archvies. You might
> be able to open it using winzip or winrar and do a manual install.

Interesting suggestion that would never have occured to me.  One of the 
unzippers I tried (IZArc) did show me a directory of the contents, but 
it would still not let me extract the files.

> Another alternative is to use the free VMWare player to create a fresh
> windows install that will run in a window. You can then install Python
> 2.3 and your application and extract the files you need to see if you
> can make it work under Python 2.4.

So I tried this and copied the files from my virtual machine to the 
site-packages folder on my real Python 2.4 machine, I then ran into 
there being a compiled extension.
> 
> If the application contains compiled extensions then they won't be
> portable from Python 2.3 to Python 2.4 - however the application will
> almost certainly run with Movable Python 2.3 (which won't interfere at
> all with your Python 2.4 install).
> 
>    http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/movpy/

I could use a virtual machine with 2.3 installed, but neither option 
appeals to me right now as I want to use the rest of my Python installed 
  stuff (and Eclipse Pydev) stuff - which is why I wanted to continue 
with Python 2.4 in the first place.

I have got a copy of the C source for the extension, can anybody give 
me/point me a cookbook recipe for making my own version of the extension 
that will play with 2.4?  This is for Windows XP and I don't currently 
have a C compiler installed.

> Fuzzyman

Some great suggestions.

Thanks,

Don.