[Tutor] Simple profile of cx_Freeze and py2exe

[Alex Newby]

Given the discussion on converting Py to Exe, I tried both cx_Freeze and
py2exe. I created a simple,

print "hello world"
raw_input() 

and, applied both utilities. Gordon MacMillan's site appears to be
off-line, so his installer is excluded.

1. cx_Freeze ~ 3 files

python23.dll 
_sre.pyd 
hello.exe 207kb
---------------
dist is 1.18mb
memory usage is 3,160K

2. py2exe ~ 5 files

python23.dll 
_sre.pyd 
w9xpopen
hello.exe 20kb
library.zip 204kb
-----------------
dist is 1.21mb
memory usage is 2,948K


cx_Freeze seems tidier and easier to initially use (no setup.py) than
py2exe. Perhaps, py2exe has other advantages that I'm not aware of. I'm
curious why cx_Freeze receives relatively little press. Before it was
discussed here I was completely unaware of its existence.  

Alex Newby