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