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 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
  21 need to have SWIG unless you want to modify the *.i files.  If you do
  22 you'll want to have version 1.1-883 of SWIG and you'll need to apply
  23 the patches and updates in wxPython/SWIG and rebuild it.  Then you'll
  24 need to change a flag in the setup.py script as described below so the
  25 wxPython build process will use SWIG if needed.
  26
  27 I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython.  It is included
  28 with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
  29 you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
  30 http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
  31
  32 I use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (5.0 with the service packs should work
  33 also) to compile the wxPython C++ sources.  Since I am using Distutils
  34 it should be easier now to build with other win32 compilers such as
  35 the free mingw32 or Borland compilers, but I havn't tried them yet.
  36 If anybody wants to try it I'll take any required patches for the
  37 setup script and for these instructions.
  38
  39 And now on to the fun stuff...
  40
  41
  42
  43 1. Get the wxWindows sources
  44 ----------------------------
  45
  46 A. There are a few possible ways to get sources for wxWindows.  You
  47    can download a released version from http://wxwindows.org/ or you
  48    can get current development sources from the CVS server.  (Some
  49    information about annonymous CVS access is at
  50    http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm.)  The advantage of using CVS is that
  51    you can easily update as soon as the developers check in new
  52    sources or fixes.  The advantage of using a released version is
  53    that it usually has had more testing done.  You can decide which
  54    method is best for you.
  55
  56 B. You'll usually want to use wxWindows sources that have the same
  57    version number as the wxPython sources you are using.  (Another
  58    advantage of using CVS is that you'll get both at the same time.)
  59
  60 C. Once you get the sources be sure to put them in a path without a
  61    space in it (i.e., NOT c:\Program Files\wx) and set an environment
  62    variable named WXWIN to this directory.  For example:
  63
  64          mkdir \wx2
  65          cd \wx2
  66          unzip wxMSW-2.2.2.zip
  67          set WXWIN=c:\wx2
  68
  69    You'll probably want to add that last line to your autoexec.bat or
  70    System Properties depending on the type of system you are on.
  71
  72 D. Change to the wx2\include\wx\msw directory and copy setup0.h to
  73    setup.h and then edit setup.h.  This is how you control which parts
  74    of wxWindows are compiled into or left out of the build, simply by
  75    turning options on or off.  At a minimum you should set the
  76    following:
  77
  78          wxUSE_NEW_GRID                     1
  79          wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS      0
  80          wxUSE_LIBTIFF                      1
  81          wxDIALOG_UNIT_COMPATIBILITY        0
  82
  83     I also turn off the following as they are not currently used in
  84     wxPython.  There are probably others that can be turned off to
  85     help save space, but I havn't investigated all the potential
  86     configurations yet.  Please note that wxPython doesn't (yet) check
  87     these flags for its own build, so if you turn off something that
  88     wxPython expects then you'll get link errors later on.
  89
  90          wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER               0
  91          wxUSE_DYNLIB_CLASS                 0
  92          wxUSE_DOC_VIEW_ARCHITECTURE        0
  93          wxUSE_PLOT                         0
  94          wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT_ARCHITECTURE_IN_MSW 0
  95
  96
  97     ** NEW **
  98     Be sure that wxUSE_GLCANVAS is defined to be 0 as wxPython now
  99     keeps its own copy of the glcanvas sources and expects that it is
 100     not in the main library.  This is done to reduce the number of
 101     dependant DLLs on the core library and therefore help reduce
 102     startup time.
 103
 104
 105
 106 2. Build the wxWindows DLL
 107 ---------------------------
 108
 109 A. Although MSVC project files are provided I always use the makefiles
 110    to build wxWindows because by default the flags are compatible with
 111    Python, (and I make sure they stay that way.)  You would have to
 112    edit the project files a bit to make it work otherwise.
 113
 114 B. There are three different types of wxWindows DLLs that can be
 115    produced by the VC makefile simply by providing a flag on the nmake
 116    command-line, I call the three types DEBUG, FINAL, and HYBRID.
 117    (The last one is brand new, you'll need my version of the 2.2.2
 118    sources to get the HYBRID capability.)  Here are some more details:
 119
 120       DEBUG Specified with "FINAL=0" and produces a DLL named
 121             wx[version]d.dll.  This DLL is compiled with full
 122             debugging information and with the __WXDEBUG__ set which
 123             enables some debugging-only code in wxWindows such as
 124             assertions and failure log messages.  The /MDd flag is
 125             used which means that it is linked with the debugging
 126             version of the C runtime library and also that you must
 127             use the debugging version of Python, (python_d.exe and
 128             pythonXX_d.dll) which also means that all extensions
 129             loaded by Python should also have the _d in the name.
 130             With this option you can use the MSVC debugger to trace
 131             though the Python interpreter, as well as the code for the
 132             wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL.
 133
 134       FINAL Specified with "FINAL=1" and produces a DLL named
 135             wx[version].dll.  This DLL is compiled with optimizations
 136             turned on and without debugging information and without
 137             __WXDEBUG__.  The /MD flag is used which means that you
 138             can use this version with the standard python.exe.  This
 139             is the version that I use when making the binary installer
 140             for win32.
 141
 142      HYBRID Specified with "FINAL=hybrid" and produces a DLL named
 143             wx[version]h.dll.  This DLL is almost the same as the
 144             DEBUG version except the /MD flag is used which means that
 145             you can use the standard python.exe but you still get the
 146             debugging info and the __WXDEBUG__ code enabled.  With the
 147             debugger you can trace through the the code for the
 148             wxPython extension and the wxWindows DLL, but not the
 149             Python interpreter.  You might use this version when you
 150             want to deploy a wxPython app with the __WXDEBUG__ code
 151             enabled.  I use this mode most of the time during
 152             development simply because it's easier than having to
 153             remember to type python_d all the time.
 154
 155    Since different DLL names and object file directories are used you
 156    can build all three types if you like.
 157
 158 C. Change to the wx2\src\msw directory and type the following command,
 159    using the value for FINAL that you want:
 160
 161          nmake -f makefile.vc dll pch FINAL=hybrid
 162
 163    Your machine will then crunch away for possibly a long time,
 164    depending on your hardware, and when it's done you should have a
 165    DLL and some library files in \wx2\lib.
 166
 167 D. You'll either need to add \wx2\lib to the PATH or copy the DLL file
 168    to a directory already on the PATH so the DLL can be found at runtime.
 169
 170 E. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
 171    \wx2\samples or \wx2\demos and typing (using the right FINAL flag):
 172
 173         nmake -f makefile.vc FINAL=hybrid WXUSINGDLL=1
 174
 175    and then executing the resulting .exe file.
 176
 177
 178
 179 3. Get the wxPython sources
 180 ---------------------------
 181
 182 A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
 183    getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
 184    CVS.  The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
 185    and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php.  You can use
 186    WinZip to unpack it if you don't have tar and gzip.  If you want to
 187    use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see above)
 188    in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.
 189
 190
 191
 192 4. Build and Install wxPython
 193 -----------------------------
 194
 195 A. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
 196    Python Distutils tool.  If you are using Python 2.0c1 or later you
 197    are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
 198    1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
 199
 200 B. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
 201    file.  This is the script that configures and defines all the
 202    information that Distutils needs to build wxPython.  There are some
 203    options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
 204    to change based on what options you have selected up to this point,
 205    (type of DLL built, sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.)  You can
 206    either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
 207    the command-line.
 208
 209         BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 210                        Open GL canvas extension module.
 211
 212              BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 213                        Object Graphics Library extension module.
 214
 215              BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 216                        wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
 217                        extension module.
 218
 219               USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
 220                        will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
 221                        will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
 222                        and shadow python files.
 223
 224            IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
 225                        wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
 226                        need to set this flag to non-zero.  This is
 227                        needed because some source files from the
 228                        wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
 229                        wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
 230                        With this flag set then setup.py will
 231                        automatically keep these copied sources up to
 232                        date if the original version is ever updated.
 233                        If you are using the tar.gz version of the
 234                        Python sources then these copied sources are
 235                        already present in your source tree.
 236
 237
 238 C. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
 239    setup.py script.  If you have more than one version of Python
 240    installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
 241    build wxPython for.
 242
 243    Depending on what kind of wxWindows DLL you built there are
 244    different command-line parameters you'll want to pass to setup (in
 245    addition to possibly one or more of the above):
 246
 247          FINAL:     python setup.py install
 248
 249          DEBUG:     python setup.py build --debug install
 250
 251          HYBRID:    python setup.py HYBRID=1 install
 252
 253
 254 D. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython\demo
 255    directory and run the demo:
 256
 257          python demo.py
 258
 259 E. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
 260    installed version of wxPython you can do so with one of these
 261    commands instead of the install command above:
 262
 263          FINAL:     python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 264
 265          DEBUG:     python setup.py build_ext --debug --inplace
 266
 267          HYBRID:    python setup.py HYBRID=1 build_ext --inplace
 268
 269    This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
 270    directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
 271    To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
 272    directory to the PYTHONPATH:
 273
 274          set PYTHONPATH=c:\wx2\wxPython
 275          cd c:\wx2\wxPython\demo
 276          python demo.py
 277
 278
 279 That's all folks!
 280
 281
 282 -----------------
 283 robin@alldunn.com
 284