[wxWidgets.git] / wxPython / BUILD.win32.txt

Building wxPython on Win32
--------------------------


Building wxPython for use on win32 systems is a fairly simple process
consisting of just a few steps.  However depending on where you get
your sources from and what your desired end result is, there are
several permutations of those steps.  At a high level the basic steps
are:

     1. Get the wxWindows sources
     2. Build the wxWindows DLL
     3. Get the wxPython sources
     4. Build and Install wxPython

We'll go into more detail of each of these steps below, but first a
few bits of background information on tools.

I use a tool called SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to help generate the
C++ sources used in the wxPython extension module.  However you don't
need to have SWIG unless you want to modify the *.i files.  I've made
several modifications to SWIG specific to wxPython's needs and so the
modified sources are included in the wx CVS at .../wxPython/wxSWIG.
If you need to modify the *.i files for wxPython then change to this
directory and run:

      nmake -f makefile.vc

Then you'll need to change a flag in the setup.py script as described
below so the wxPython build process will use SWIG if needed.

I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython.  It is included
with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/

I use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (5.0 with the service packs should work
also) to compile the wxPython C++ sources.  Since I am using Distutils
it should be easier now to build with other win32 compilers such as
the free mingw32 or Borland compilers, but I havn't tried them yet.
If anybody wants to try it I'll take any required patches for the
setup script and for these instructions.


UNICODE
-------

To build the version of wxWindows/wxPython that uses the unicode
version of the Win32 APIs, just follow the steps below with these
changes:

    a. You'll need the MSLU runtime DLL and import lib. The former can
       be downloaded from Microsoft, the latter is part of the latest
       Platform SDK from Microsoft (see msdn.microsoft.com for
       details).  An alternative implementation of import lib can be
       downloaded from http://libunicows.sourceforge.net

    b. Add "UNICODE=1 MSLU=1" to the nmake command line when building
       wxWindows.

    c. Add "UNICODE=1" to the setup.py commandline when building
       wxPython.

    d. See the notes in CHANGES.txt about unicode.


And now on to the fun stuff...


1. Get the wxWindows sources
----------------------------

A. There are a few possible ways to get sources for wxWindows.  You
   can download a released version from http://wxwindows.org/ or you
   can get current development sources from the CVS server.  (Some
   information about annonymous CVS access is at the
   http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm site.)  The advantage of using CVS is
   that you can easily update as soon as the developers check in new
   sources or fixes.  The advantage of using a released version is
   that it usually has had more thorough testing done.  You can decide
   which method is best for you.

B. You'll usually want to use wxWindows sources that have the same
   version number as the wxPython sources you are using.  (Another
   advantage of using CVS is that you'll get both at the same time.)

C. Once you get the sources be sure to put them in a path without a
   space in it (i.e., NOT c:\Program Files\wx) and set an environment
   variable named WXWIN to this directory.  For example:

         mkdir \wx2
         cd \wx2
         unzip wxMSW-2.2.2.zip
         set WXWIN=c:\wx2

   You'll probably want to add that last line to your autoexec.bat or
   System Properties depending on the type of system you are on.

D. Change to the wx2\include\wx\msw directory and copy setup0.h to
   setup.h and then edit setup.h.  This is how you control which parts
   of wxWindows are compiled into or left out of the build, simply by
   turning options on or off.  I have the following differences from
   the default setup0.h in my setup.h, but you can experiment with
   other settings if you like:

	 WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_2	0
         wxDIALOG_UNIT_COMPATIBILITY	0
	 wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING		1
         wxUSE_CMDLINE_PARSER		0
	 wxUSE_FSVOLUME			0
         wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER		0
	 wxUSE_DYNAMIC_LOADER		0
         wxUSE_TREELAYOUT		0
	 wxUSE_MS_HTML_HELP		0
         wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT		1


    ** NEW **
    Be sure that wxUSE_GLCANVAS is defined to be 0 as wxPython now
    keeps its own copy of the glcanvas sources and expects that it is
    not in the main library.  This is done to reduce the number of
    dependant DLLs on the core library and therefore help reduce
    startup time.


2. Build the wxWindows DLL
---------------------------

A. Although MSVC project files are provided I always use the makefiles
   to build wxWindows because by default the flags are compatible with
   Python, (and I make sure they stay that way.)  You would have to
   edit the project files a bit to make it work otherwise.

B. There are three different types of wxWindows DLLs that can be
   produced by the VC makefile simply by providing a flag on the nmake
   command-line, I call the three types DEBUG, FINAL, and HYBRID.
   Here are some more details:

      DEBUG Specified with "FINAL=0" and produces a DLL named
            wxmsw[version]d.dll.  This DLL is compiled with full
            debugging information and with the __WXDEBUG__ macro set,
            which enables some debugging-only code in wxWindows such
            as assertions and failure log messages.  The /MDd flag is
            used which means that it is linked with the debugging
            version of the C runtime library and also that you must
            use the debugging version of Python, (python_d.exe and
            pythonXX_d.dll) which also means that all extensions
            loaded by Python should also have the _d in the name.
            With this option you can use the MSVC debugger to trace
            though the Python interpreter, as well as the code for the
            wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL.

      FINAL Specified with "FINAL=1" and produces a DLL named
            wxmsw[version].dll.  This DLL is compiled with optimizations
            turned on and without debugging information and without
            __WXDEBUG__.  The /MD flag is used which means that you
            can use this version with the standard python.exe.  This
            is the version that I use when making the binary installer
            for win32.

     HYBRID Specified with "FINAL=hybrid" and produces a DLL named
            wxmsw[version]h.dll.  This DLL is almost the same as the
            DEBUG version except the /MD flag is used which means that
            you can use the standard python.exe but you still get the
            debugging info and the __WXDEBUG__ code enabled.  With the
            debugger you can trace through the the code for the
            wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL, but not the
            Python interpreter.  You might use this version when you
            want to deploy a wxPython app with the __WXDEBUG__ code
            enabled.  I use this mode most of the time during
            development simply because it's easier than having to
            remember to type python_d all the time.

   Since different DLL names and object file directories are used you
   can build all three types if you like.

C. Change to the wx2\src\msw directory and type the following command,
   using the value for FINAL that you want:

         nmake -f makefile.vc dll pch FINAL=hybrid

   Your machine will then crunch away for possibly a long time,
   depending on your hardware, and when it's done you should have a
   DLL and some library files in \wx2\lib.

D. You'll either need to add \wx2\lib to the PATH or copy the DLL file
   to a directory already on the PATH so the DLL can be found at
   runtime.  Another option is to copy the DLL to the directory that
   the wxPython pacakge is installed to, for example,
   c:\Python22\lib\site-packages\wxPython.

E. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
   \wx2\samples or \wx2\demos and typing (using the right FINAL flag):

        nmake -f makefile.vc FINAL=hybrid WXUSINGDLL=1

   and then executing the resulting .exe file.


3. Get the wxPython sources
---------------------------

A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
   getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
   CVS.  The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
   and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php.  You can use
   WinZip to unpack it if you don't have tar and gzip.  If you want to
   use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see above)
   in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.


4. Build and Install wxPython
-----------------------------

A. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
   Python Distutils tool.  If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
   are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
   1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.

B. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
   file.  This is the script that configures and defines all the
   information that Distutils needs to build wxPython.  There are some
   options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
   to change based on what options you have selected up to this point,
   (type of DLL built, sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.)  You can
   either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
   the command-line.

        BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
                       Open GL canvas extension module.

             BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
                       Object Graphics Library extension module.

             BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
                       wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
                       extension module.

              USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
                       will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
                       will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
                       and shadow python files.

           IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
                       wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
                       need to set this flag to non-zero.  This is
                       needed because some source files from the
                       wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
                       wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
                       With this flag set then setup.py will
                       automatically keep these copied sources up to
                       date if the original version is ever updated.
                       If you are using the tar.gz version of the
                       Python sources then these copied sources are
                       already present in your source tree.


C. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
   setup.py script.  If you have more than one version of Python
   installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
   build wxPython for.

   Depending on what kind of wxWindows DLL you built there are
   different command-line parameters you'll want to pass to setup (in
   addition to possibly one or more of the above):

         FINAL:     python setup.py install

         DEBUG:     python setup.py build --debug install

         HYBRID:    python setup.py HYBRID=1 install

   NOTE:  If you get an internal compiler error from MSVC then you
   need to edit setup.py and add in the /GX- flag that is normally
   commented out.  Just search for "GX-" and uncomment it so it is put
   into the cflags list.


D. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython\demo
   directory and run the demo:

         python demo.py

E. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
   installed version of wxPython you can do so with one of these
   commands instead of the install command above:

         FINAL:     python setup.py build_ext --inplace

         DEBUG:     python setup.py build_ext --debug --inplace

         HYBRID:    python setup.py HYBRID=1 build_ext --inplace

   This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
   directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
   To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
   directory to the PYTHONPATH:

         set PYTHONPATH=c:\wx2\wxPython
         cd c:\wx2\wxPython\demo
         python demo.py


That's all folks!


-----------------
robin@alldunn.com
Commit	Line	Data
c368d904 RD	1	Building wxPython on Win32
	2	--------------------------
	3
	4
	5	Building wxPython for use on win32 systems is a fairly simple process
	6	consisting of just a few steps. However depending on where you get
	7	your sources from and what your desired end result is, there are
	8	several permutations of those steps. At a high level the basic steps
	9	are:
	10
	11	1. Get the wxWindows sources
	12	2. Build the wxWindows DLL
	13	3. Get the wxPython sources
	14	4. Build and Install wxPython
	15
	16	We'll go into more detail of each of these steps below, but first a
	17	few bits of background information on tools.
	18
	19	I use a tool called SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to help generate the
	20	C++ sources used in the wxPython extension module. However you don't
05d61b69 RD	21	need to have SWIG unless you want to modify the *.i files. I've made
	22	several modifications to SWIG specific to wxPython's needs and so the
	23	modified sources are included in the wx CVS at .../wxPython/wxSWIG.
	24	If you need to modify the *.i files for wxPython then change to this
	25	directory and run:
	26
	27	nmake -f makefile.vc
	28
	29	Then you'll need to change a flag in the setup.py script as described
	30	below so the wxPython build process will use SWIG if needed.
c368d904 RD	31
	32	I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython. It is included
	33	with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
	34	you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
	35	http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
	36
	37	I use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (5.0 with the service packs should work
	38	also) to compile the wxPython C++ sources. Since I am using Distutils
	39	it should be easier now to build with other win32 compilers such as
	40	the free mingw32 or Borland compilers, but I havn't tried them yet.
	41	If anybody wants to try it I'll take any required patches for the
	42	setup script and for these instructions.
	43
b8510c2f RD	44
	45	UNICODE
	46	-------
	47
	48	To build the version of wxWindows/wxPython that uses the unicode
	49	version of the Win32 APIs, just follow the steps below with these
	50	changes:
	51
15fe5ada VS	52	a. You'll need the MSLU runtime DLL and import lib. The former can
	53	be downloaded from Microsoft, the latter is part of the latest
	54	Platform SDK from Microsoft (see msdn.microsoft.com for
	55	details). An alternative implementation of import lib can be
	56	downloaded from http://libunicows.sourceforge.net
b8510c2f RD	57
	58	b. Add "UNICODE=1 MSLU=1" to the nmake command line when building
	59	wxWindows.
	60
	61	c. Add "UNICODE=1" to the setup.py commandline when building
	62	wxPython.
	63
	64	d. See the notes in CHANGES.txt about unicode.
	65
	66
c368d904 RD	67	And now on to the fun stuff...
	68
	69
	70
b8510c2f	71
c368d904 RD	72	1. Get the wxWindows sources
	73	----------------------------
	74
	75	A. There are a few possible ways to get sources for wxWindows. You
	76	can download a released version from http://wxwindows.org/ or you
	77	can get current development sources from the CVS server. (Some
05d61b69 RD	78	information about annonymous CVS access is at the
	79	http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm site.) The advantage of using CVS is
	80	that you can easily update as soon as the developers check in new
c368d904	81	sources or fixes. The advantage of using a released version is
05d61b69 RD	82	that it usually has had more thorough testing done. You can decide
05d61b69 RD	83	which method is best for you.
c368d904 RD	84
	85	B. You'll usually want to use wxWindows sources that have the same
	86	version number as the wxPython sources you are using. (Another
	87	advantage of using CVS is that you'll get both at the same time.)
	88
c368d904 RD	89	C. Once you get the sources be sure to put them in a path without a
	90	space in it (i.e., NOT c:\Program Files\wx) and set an environment
	91	variable named WXWIN to this directory. For example:
	92
85112265 RD	93	mkdir \wx2
	94	cd \wx2
	95	unzip wxMSW-2.2.2.zip
	96	set WXWIN=c:\wx2
c368d904 RD	97
	98	You'll probably want to add that last line to your autoexec.bat or
	99	System Properties depending on the type of system you are on.
	100
	101	D. Change to the wx2\include\wx\msw directory and copy setup0.h to
	102	setup.h and then edit setup.h. This is how you control which parts
	103	of wxWindows are compiled into or left out of the build, simply by
85112265 RD	104	turning options on or off. I have the following differences from
	105	the default setup0.h in my setup.h, but you can experiment with
	106	other settings if you like:
c368d904	107
05d61b69 RD	108	WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_2 0
	109	wxDIALOG_UNIT_COMPATIBILITY 0
	110	wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING 1
	111	wxUSE_CMDLINE_PARSER 0
	112	wxUSE_FSVOLUME 0
	113	wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER 0
8f154d87	114	wxUSE_DYNAMIC_LOADER 0
05d61b69	115	wxUSE_TREELAYOUT 0
8f154d87	116	wxUSE_MS_HTML_HELP 0
05d61b69	117	wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT 1
c368d904 RD	118
c368d904 RD	119
19cf4f80 RD	120	NEW
	121	Be sure that wxUSE_GLCANVAS is defined to be 0 as wxPython now
	122	keeps its own copy of the glcanvas sources and expects that it is
926bb76c RD	123	not in the main library. This is done to reduce the number of
	124	dependant DLLs on the core library and therefore help reduce
	125	startup time.
19cf4f80	126
c368d904 RD	127
	128
	129	2. Build the wxWindows DLL
	130	---------------------------
	131
	132	A. Although MSVC project files are provided I always use the makefiles
	133	to build wxWindows because by default the flags are compatible with
	134	Python, (and I make sure they stay that way.) You would have to
	135	edit the project files a bit to make it work otherwise.
	136
	137	B. There are three different types of wxWindows DLLs that can be
	138	produced by the VC makefile simply by providing a flag on the nmake
	139	command-line, I call the three types DEBUG, FINAL, and HYBRID.
05d61b69	140	Here are some more details:
c368d904 RD	141
c368d904 RD	142	DEBUG Specified with "FINAL=0" and produces a DLL named
05d61b69 RD	143	wxmsw[version]d.dll. This DLL is compiled with full
	144	debugging information and with the __WXDEBUG__ macro set,
	145	which enables some debugging-only code in wxWindows such
	146	as assertions and failure log messages. The /MDd flag is
85112265 RD	147	used which means that it is linked with the debugging
	148	version of the C runtime library and also that you must
	149	use the debugging version of Python, (python_d.exe and
	150	pythonXX_d.dll) which also means that all extensions
	151	loaded by Python should also have the _d in the name.
	152	With this option you can use the MSVC debugger to trace
	153	though the Python interpreter, as well as the code for the
	154	wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL.
c368d904 RD	155
c368d904 RD	156	FINAL Specified with "FINAL=1" and produces a DLL named
05d61b69	157	wxmsw[version].dll. This DLL is compiled with optimizations
c368d904 RD	158	turned on and without debugging information and without
	159	__WXDEBUG__. The /MD flag is used which means that you
	160	can use this version with the standard python.exe. This
	161	is the version that I use when making the binary installer
	162	for win32.
	163
	164	HYBRID Specified with "FINAL=hybrid" and produces a DLL named
05d61b69	165	wxmsw[version]h.dll. This DLL is almost the same as the
c368d904 RD	166	DEBUG version except the /MD flag is used which means that
	167	you can use the standard python.exe but you still get the
	168	debugging info and the __WXDEBUG__ code enabled. With the
	169	debugger you can trace through the the code for the
	170	wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL, but not the
	171	Python interpreter. You might use this version when you
	172	want to deploy a wxPython app with the __WXDEBUG__ code
	173	enabled. I use this mode most of the time during
	174	development simply because it's easier than having to
	175	remember to type python_d all the time.
	176
	177	Since different DLL names and object file directories are used you
	178	can build all three types if you like.
	179
	180	C. Change to the wx2\src\msw directory and type the following command,
	181	using the value for FINAL that you want:
	182
85112265	183	nmake -f makefile.vc dll pch FINAL=hybrid
c368d904 RD	184
	185	Your machine will then crunch away for possibly a long time,
	186	depending on your hardware, and when it's done you should have a
	187	DLL and some library files in \wx2\lib.
	188
	189	D. You'll either need to add \wx2\lib to the PATH or copy the DLL file
05d61b69 RD	190	to a directory already on the PATH so the DLL can be found at
	191	runtime. Another option is to copy the DLL to the directory that
	192	the wxPython pacakge is installed to, for example,
	193	c:\Python22\lib\site-packages\wxPython.
c368d904 RD	194
	195	E. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
	196	\wx2\samples or \wx2\demos and typing (using the right FINAL flag):
	197
85112265	198	nmake -f makefile.vc FINAL=hybrid WXUSINGDLL=1
c368d904 RD	199
	200	and then executing the resulting .exe file.
	201
	202
	203
	204	3. Get the wxPython sources
	205	---------------------------
	206
	207	A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
	208	getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
	209	CVS. The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
	210	and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php. You can use
	211	WinZip to unpack it if you don't have tar and gzip. If you want to
	212	use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see above)
	213	in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.
	214
	215
	216
	217	4. Build and Install wxPython
	218	-----------------------------
	219
	220	A. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
05d61b69	221	Python Distutils tool. If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
c368d904 RD	222	are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
	223	1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
	224
	225	B. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
	226	file. This is the script that configures and defines all the
	227	information that Distutils needs to build wxPython. There are some
	228	options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
	229	to change based on what options you have selected up to this point,
	230	(type of DLL built, sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.) You can
	231	either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
	232	the command-line.
	233
85112265 RD	234	BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
85112265 RD	235	Open GL canvas extension module.
c368d904	236
85112265 RD	237	BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
85112265 RD	238	Object Graphics Library extension module.
c368d904	239
85112265 RD	240	BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
	241	wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
	242	extension module.
c368d904	243
85112265 RD	244	USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
	245	will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
	246	will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
	247	and shadow python files.
c368d904	248
85112265 RD	249	IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
	250	wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
	251	need to set this flag to non-zero. This is
	252	needed because some source files from the
	253	wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
	254	wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
	255	With this flag set then setup.py will
	256	automatically keep these copied sources up to
	257	date if the original version is ever updated.
	258	If you are using the tar.gz version of the
	259	Python sources then these copied sources are
	260	already present in your source tree.
c368d904 RD	261
	262
	263	C. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
	264	setup.py script. If you have more than one version of Python
	265	installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
	266	build wxPython for.
	267
	268	Depending on what kind of wxWindows DLL you built there are
	269	different command-line parameters you'll want to pass to setup (in
	270	addition to possibly one or more of the above):
	271
85112265	272	FINAL: python setup.py install
c368d904	273
85112265	274	DEBUG: python setup.py build --debug install
c368d904	275
85112265	276	HYBRID: python setup.py HYBRID=1 install
c368d904	277
ad07d019 RD	278	NOTE: If you get an internal compiler error from MSVC then you
	279	need to edit setup.py and add in the /GX- flag that is normally
	280	commented out. Just search for "GX-" and uncomment it so it is put
	281	into the cflags list.
	282
c368d904 RD	283
	284	D. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython\demo
	285	directory and run the demo:
	286
85112265	287	python demo.py
c368d904 RD	288
	289	E. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
	290	installed version of wxPython you can do so with one of these
	291	commands instead of the install command above:
	292
85112265	293	FINAL: python setup.py build_ext --inplace
c368d904	294
85112265	295	DEBUG: python setup.py build_ext --debug --inplace
c368d904	296
85112265	297	HYBRID: python setup.py HYBRID=1 build_ext --inplace
c368d904 RD	298
	299	This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
	300	directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
	301	To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
	302	directory to the PYTHONPATH:
	303
	304	set PYTHONPATH=c:\wx2\wxPython
85112265 RD	305	cd c:\wx2\wxPython\demo
85112265 RD	306	python demo.py
c368d904 RD	307
	308
	309	That's all folks!
	310
	311
	312	-----------------
	313	robin@alldunn.com
	314