How to install Python package from source on Windows
Terry Reedy
tjreedy at udel.edu
Tue May 16 21:33:30 EDT 2017
On 5/16/2017 5:14 PM, bartc wrote:
> On 16/05/2017 21:18, breamoreboy at gmail.com wrote:
>> On Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 5:09:34 PM UTC+1, bartc wrote:
>
>>> I can't test with Python because it's too complicated to compile,
>>> especially on Windows.
>
>> What is the problem with the documentation given here
>> https://docs.python.org/devguide ?
>>
>> Specifically:-
>>
>> "and on Windows use:
>>
>> PCbuild\build.bat -e -d"
>
> Everything?
>
> That PCbuild line is step 3 of Quick Start. You have to get past steps 1
> and 2 first. It talks about something called Git; I don't know what that
> is or what I'm supposed to do with it, but it's a 35MB download. (Not
> that that is very big these days, but 35MB (compressed size and there
> may be more to come) suggests complexity that I don't want to get into.)
If you merely want to download and compile, you only need about 2 git
commands: 'clone' and the fetch-merge command. The devguide intros may
be enough. Creating patches is much more complex.
> The Windows-specific link says I need to use MS VS2015. That's a BIG
> application (I believe in the 1000s MB range for downloading) and my
Yes, one must download the Visual Studio Community Edition, 6-9
gigabytes. I had to install it on my terabyte auxiliary hard drive,
along with games, instead of my 72 gb SDD C: drive.
But once done, build.bat directly invokes the embedded C++ compiler.
Before it was added, one had to boot up Visual Studio (1/2 minute or
more) with the Python project files and hit the correct key. The .bat
file is *much* easier. I have it embedded in my own pull.bat that first
pulls updates and merges them into the local repository.
> track record with this stuff suggests that I will go to all this
> trouble, spend a considerable amount of time, and then it'll fail at
> some point and I won't have a clue why not.
>
> So when I said it was too complicated to compile, I meant exactly that.
>
> By contrast, the program I tested in place of CPython, builds
> effortlessly with compilers in the 0.2MB size range, one of which is
> Tiny C.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
More information about the Python-list
mailing list