wxPython/BUILD.win32.txt

   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 sources
  12      2. Build the wxWindows DLL
  13      3. Build and Install wxPython
  14
  15 We'll go into more detail of each of these steps below, but first a
  16 few bits of background information on tools.
  17
  18 I use a tool called SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to help generate the
  19 C++ sources used in the wxPython extension module.  However you don't
  20 need to have SWIG unless you want to modify the *.i files.  I've made
  21 several modifications to SWIG specific to wxPython's needs and so the
  22 modified sources are included in the wx CVS at .../wxPython/wxSWIG.
  23 But because of the size and since most people won't need it my SWIG is
  24 not included in the wxPythonSrc tarball.  You'll need to get it from
  25 CVS or a CVS snapshot.
  26
  27 If you need to modify the *.i files for wxPython then change to the
  28 .../wxPython/wxSWIG directory and run:
  29
  30       nmake -f makefile.vc
  31
  32 Then you'll need to change a flag in the setup.py script as described
  33 below so the wxPython build process will use SWIG if needed.
  34
  35 I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython.  It is included
  36 with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
  37 you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
  38 http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
  39
  40 I use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (5.0 with the service packs should work
  41 also) to compile the wxPython C++ sources.  Since I am using Distutils
  42 it should be easier now to build with other win32 compilers such as
  43 the free mingw32 or Borland compilers, but I havn't tried them yet.
  44 If anybody wants to try it I'll take any required patches for the
  45 setup script and for these instructions.
  46
  47
  48
  49 UNICODE
  50 -------
  51
  52 To build the version of wxWindows/wxPython that uses the unicode
  53 version of the Win32 APIs, just follow the steps below with these
  54 changes:
  55
  56     a. You'll need the MSLU runtime DLL and import lib. The former can
  57        be downloaded from Microsoft, the latter is part of the latest
  58        Platform SDK from Microsoft (see msdn.microsoft.com for
  59        details).  An alternative implementation of import lib can be
  60        downloaded from http://libunicows.sourceforge.net
  61
  62     b. Add "UNICODE=1 MSLU=1" to the nmake command line when building
  63        wxWindows.
  64
  65     c. Add "UNICODE=1" to the setup.py commandline when building
  66        wxPython.
  67
  68     d. See the notes in CHANGES.txt about unicode.
  69
  70
  71 And now on to the fun stuff...
  72
  73
  74
  75
  76 1. Get the sources
  77 ------------------
  78
  79 A. You can either use a tarball with the released version of the
  80    source code for wxWindows/wxPython, or you can get current
  81    development sources from the CVS repository.  (Some information
  82    about annonymous CVS access is at the http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm
  83    site.)  The advantage of using CVS is that you can easily update as
  84    soon as the developers check in new sources or fixes.  The
  85    advantage of using a released version is that it usually has had
  86    more thorough testing done.  You can decide which method is best
  87    for you.  The released version file is named
  88    wxPythonSrc-[version].tar.gz and is available from the wxPython
  89    website at http://wxpython.org/download.php.  You can use WinZip to
  90    unpack it if you don't have tar and gzip.
  91
  92
  93 B. Once you get the sources be sure to put them in a path without a
  94    space in it (i.e., NOT c:\Program Files\wx) and set an environment
  95    variable named WXWIN to the top level directory.  For example:
  96
  97          set WXWIN=c:\wx\wxPythonSrc-2.4.0.4
  98
  99    You'll probably want to add that line to your autoexec.bat or
 100    System Properties depending on the type of system you are on.
 101
 102
 103 C. Change to the %WXWIN%\include\wx\msw directory and copy setup0.h to
 104    setup.h and then edit setup.h.  This is how you control which parts
 105    of wxWindows are compiled into or left out of the build, simply by
 106    turning options on or off.  I have the following differences from
 107    the default setup0.h in my setup.h, but you can experiment with
 108    other settings if you like:
 109
 110
 111          WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_2        0
 112          wxDIALOG_UNIT_COMPATIBILITY    0
 113          wxUSE_DEBUG_CONTEXT            1
 114          wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING           1
 115          wxUSE_CMDLINE_PARSER           0
 116          wxUSE_FSVOLUME                 0
 117          wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER           0
 118          wxUSE_DYNAMIC_LOADER           0
 119          wxUSE_TREELAYOUT               0
 120          wxUSE_MS_HTML_HELP             0
 121          wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT               1
 122
 123
 124     ** NEW **
 125     Be sure that wxUSE_GLCANVAS is defined to be 0 as wxPython now
 126     keeps its own copy of the glcanvas sources and expects that it is
 127     not in the main library.  This is done to reduce the number of
 128     dependant DLLs on the core library and therefore help reduce
 129     startup time.
 130
 131
 132
 133 2. Build the wxWindows DLL
 134 ---------------------------
 135
 136 A. Although MSVC project files are provided I always use the makefiles
 137    to build wxWindows because by default the flags are compatible with
 138    Python, (and I make sure they stay that way.)  You would have to
 139    edit the project files a bit to make it work otherwise.
 140
 141
 142 B. There are three different types of wxWindows DLLs that can be
 143    produced by the VC makefile simply by providing a flag on the nmake
 144    command-line, I call the three types DEBUG, FINAL, and HYBRID.
 145    Here are some more details:
 146
 147       DEBUG Specified with "FINAL=0" and produces a DLL named
 148             wxmsw[version]d.dll.  This DLL is compiled with full
 149             debugging information and with the __WXDEBUG__ macro set,
 150             which enables some debugging-only code in wxWindows such
 151             as assertions and failure log messages.  The /MDd flag is
 152             used which means that it is linked with the debugging
 153             version of the C runtime library and also that you must
 154             use the debugging version of Python, (python_d.exe and
 155             pythonXX_d.dll) which also means that all extensions
 156             loaded by Python should also have the _d in the name.
 157             With this option you can use the MSVC debugger to trace
 158             though the Python interpreter, as well as the code for the
 159             wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL.
 160
 161       FINAL Specified with "FINAL=1" and produces a DLL named
 162             wxmsw[version].dll.  This DLL is compiled with optimizations
 163             turned on and without debugging information and without
 164             __WXDEBUG__.  The /MD flag is used which means that you
 165             can use this version with the standard python.exe.
 166
 167      HYBRID Specified with "FINAL=hybrid" and produces a DLL named
 168             wxmsw[version]h.dll.  This DLL is almost the same as the
 169             FINAL version except the __WXDEBUG__ is used which means
 170             that you will get extra runtime assertions and validations
 171             from wxWindows.  If any of these fail then they are turned
 172             into a Python exception that you can catch and deal with
 173             in your code.  This is the version that I use when making
 174             the binary installer for win32.
 175
 176
 177    Since different DLL names and object file directories are used you
 178    can build all three types if you like.
 179
 180
 181 C. Change to the %WXWIN%\src\msw directory and type the following command,
 182    using the value for FINAL that you want:
 183
 184          nmake -f makefile.vc dll FINAL=hybrid
 185
 186    Your machine will then crunch away for possibly a long time,
 187    depending on your hardware, and when it's done you should have a
 188    DLL and some library files in %WXWIN%\lib.
 189
 190
 191 D. You'll either need to add %WXWIN%\lib to the PATH or copy the DLL
 192    file to a directory already on the PATH so the DLL can be found at
 193    runtime.  Another option is to copy the DLL to the directory that
 194    the wxPython pacakge is installed to, for example,
 195    c:\Python22\lib\site-packages\wxPython.
 196
 197
 198 E. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
 199    %WXWIN%\samples or %WXWIN\demos and typing (using the right FINAL flag):
 200
 201         nmake -f makefile.vc FINAL=hybrid WXUSINGDLL=1
 202
 203    and then executing the resulting .exe file.
 204
 205
 206
 207
 208 3. Build and Install wxPython
 209 -----------------------------
 210
 211 A. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
 212    Python Distutils tool.  If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
 213    are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
 214    1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
 215
 216
 217 B. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
 218    file.  This is the script that configures and defines all the
 219    information that Distutils needs to build wxPython.  There are some
 220    options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
 221    to change based on what options you have selected up to this point,
 222    (type of DLL built, sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.)  You can
 223    either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
 224    the command-line.
 225
 226         BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 227                        Open GL canvas extension module.
 228
 229              BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 230                        Object Graphics Library extension module.
 231
 232              BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 233                        wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
 234                        extension module.
 235
 236               USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
 237                        will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
 238                        will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
 239                        and shadow python files.
 240
 241                   etc.
 242
 243
 244 C. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
 245    setup.py script.  If you have more than one version of Python
 246    installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
 247    build wxPython for.
 248
 249    Depending on what kind of wxWindows DLL you built there are
 250    different command-line parameters you'll want to pass to setup (in
 251    addition to possibly one or more of the above):
 252
 253          FINAL:     python setup.py install
 254
 255          DEBUG:     python setup.py build --debug install
 256
 257          HYBRID:    python setup.py HYBRID=1 install
 258
 259    NOTE:  If you get an internal compiler error from MSVC then you
 260    need to edit setup.py and add in the /GX- flag that is normally
 261    commented out.  Just search for "GX-" and uncomment it so it is put
 262    into the cflags list.
 263
 264    If you would like to install to someplace besides the Python
 265    site-packages directory (such as to your home directory) then you
 266    can add "--root=<path>" after the "install" command.  To use
 267    wxPython like this you'll need to ensure that the directory
 268    containing wxPyrthon is contained in in the PYTHONPATH environment
 269    variable.
 270
 271
 272 D. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython\demo
 273    directory and run the demo:
 274
 275          python demo.py
 276
 277
 278 E. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
 279    installed version of wxPython you can do so with one of these
 280    commands instead of the install command above:
 281
 282          FINAL:     python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 283
 284          DEBUG:     python setup.py build_ext --debug --inplace
 285
 286          HYBRID:    python setup.py HYBRID=1 build_ext --inplace
 287
 288    This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
 289    directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
 290    To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
 291    directory to the PYTHONPATH:
 292
 293          set PYTHONPATH=%WXDIR%\wxPython
 294          cd %WXDIR%\wxPython\demo
 295          python demo.py
 296
 297
 298 That's all folks!
 299
 300
 301 -----------------
 302 robin@alldunn.com
 303