[sapug] Introduction

[Daryl Tester]

Feh, playing email catchup ...

John Steele Scott wrote:

> Unfortunately last time I had to go back and re-implement the application
> in C++, so that the app could be contained in a single Windows exe file.

Would embedding Python help?  With the new import interface you can now
pack most of the Python library into a single zip file, but unfortunately
you can't do the same for shared objects (.dll's or .so's) - or at least,
couldn't when I last checked.

> The Tcl/Tk starpack solution would've been good for this.

Not familiar with starpack - a quick Google shows it's a Tcl technology?

> Is anyone aware if there is an equivalent for Python yet?

Well, apart from the unzipper (which I think is native to Python 2.3
onwards; look for the zipimport module), it also provides a mechanism to
add your own import interface (look for PEP 302 and 273), so you could
theoretically talk to tar files or even over a network (which I've had
some success in doing).

There are also projects like py2exe, Gordon McMillan's Installer and
freeze (comes with the source distribution) for building standalone
executables.  From memory, some of these result in several run time
files being unpacked, but it's been quite a while since I've looked
at any of them.

> In my free time these days I find that my brain is too fried to do
> programming. :(

Amen to that. :-(

> When my brain is up to it, I'm studying the Scheme programming language.

I've got some leave coming up soon, and I'm hoping to make a significant
dent in SICP.  I've had several abortive attempts at it, but 10 minutes
or so here or there doesn't soak into the brain well.

> Although I haven't got very far with it yet, I think I can already
> relate to an observation I read on an MSDN blog that "Lisp is a Curse".[1]

I've always thought of it as that language they used in Snow Crash to
rewrite people's brains.  :-)

> Especially since we already have a Ruby troll on the list. :)

He's harmless provided you don't get him wet or feed him after midnight.


-- 
Regards,
  Daryl Tester, IOCANE Pty. Ltd.