1Welcome to the "PC" subdirectory of the Python distribution 2*********************************************************** 3 4This "PC" subdirectory contains complete project files to make 5several older PC ports of Python, as well as all the PC-specific 6Python source files. It should be located in the root of the 7Python distribution, and there should be directories "Modules", 8"Objects", "Python", etc. in the parent directory of this "PC" 9subdirectory. Be sure to read the documentation in the Python 10distribution. 11 12Python requires library files such as string.py to be available in 13one or more library directories. The search path of libraries is 14set up when Python starts. To see the current Python library search 15path, start Python and enter "import sys" and "print sys.path". 16 17All PC ports use this scheme to try to set up a module search path: 18 19 1) The script location; the current directory without script. 20 2) The PYTHONPATH variable, if set. 21 3) For Win32 platforms (NT/95), paths specified in the Registry. 22 4) Default directories lib, lib/win, lib/test, lib/tkinter; 23 these are searched relative to the environment variable 24 PYTHONHOME, if set, or relative to the executable and its 25 ancestors, if a landmark file (Lib/string.py) is found , 26 or the current directory (not useful). 27 5) The directory containing the executable. 28 29The best installation strategy is to put the Python executable (and 30DLL, for Win32 platforms) in some convenient directory such as 31C:/python, and copy all library files and subdirectories (using XCOPY) 32to C:/python/lib. Then you don't need to set PYTHONPATH. Otherwise, 33set the environment variable PYTHONPATH to your Python search path. 34For example, 35 set PYTHONPATH=.;d:\python\lib;d:\python\lib\win;d:\python\lib\dos-8x3 36 37There are several add-in modules to build Python programs which use 38the native Windows operating environment. The ports here just make 39"QuickWin" and DOS Python versions which support a character-mode 40(console) environment. Look in www.python.org for Tkinter, PythonWin, 41WPY and wxPython. 42 43To make a Python port, start the Integrated Development Environment 44(IDE) of your compiler, and read in the native "project file" 45(or makefile) provided. This will enable you to change any source 46files or build settings so you can make custom builds. 47 48pyconfig.h An important configuration file specific to PC's. 49 50config.c The list of C modules to include in the Python PC 51 version. Manually edit this file to add or 52 remove Python modules. 53 54testpy.py A Python test program. Run this to test your 55 Python port. It should produce copious output, 56 ending in a report on how many tests were OK, how many 57 failed, and how many were skipped. Don't worry about 58 skipped tests (these test unavailable optional features). 59 60 61Additional files and subdirectories for 32-bit Windows 62====================================================== 63 64python_nt.rc Resource compiler input for python15.dll. 65 66dl_nt.c 67 Additional sources used for 32-bit Windows features. 68 69getpathp.c Default sys.path calculations (for all PC platforms). 70 71dllbase_nt.txt A (manually maintained) list of base addresses for 72 various DLLs, to avoid run-time relocation. 73 74 75Note for Windows 3.x and DOS users 76================================== 77 78Neither Windows 3.x nor DOS is supported any more. The last Python 79version that supported these was Python 1.5.2; the support files were 80present in Python 2.0 but weren't updated, and it is not our intention 81to support these platforms for Python 2.x. 82