ok! Let's Go! Python...



Seriously...this is a great way to understand the internet, especially the social networking aspect of it.  I recommend that you start at least gettting your ffeet wett in programming if you haven't yet....

___________________________________________---_



2.1. Installing Python from Source Code



To install CPython from source code, you need a platform with an ISO-compliant C compiler and ancillary tools such as make. On Windows, the normal way to build Python is with Microsoft Visual Studio (version 7.1, a.k.a. VS2003, for Python 2.4 and 2.5).



To download Python source code, visit http://www.python.org and follow the link labeled Download. The latest version at the time of this writing is:



http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.3/Python-2.4.3.tgz



The .tgz file extension is equivalent to .tar.gz (i.e., a tar archive of files, compressed by the powerful and popular gzip compressor). You can also get a version with an extension of .tar.bz2 instead of .tgz, compressed with the even more powerful bzip2 compressor, if you're able to deal with Bzip-2 compression (most popular utilities can nowadays).



To download sources for Python 2.5, see http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5/. At the same URL, you will also find Python 2.5 documentation and binary releases. At the time of this writing, the first alpha release of 2.5 had just appeared, but by the time you read this book the final release of 2.5 is likely to be available.

2.1.1. Windows



On Windows, installing Python from source code can be a chore unless you are already familiar with Microsoft Visual Studio and also used to working at the Windows command line (i.e., in the text-oriented windows known as MS-DOS Prompt or Command Prompt, depending on your version of Windows).



If the following instructions give you trouble, I suggest you skip ahead to "Installing Python from Binaries" on page 18. It may be a good idea to do an installation from binaries anyway, even if you also install from source code. This way, if you notice anything strange while using the version you installed from source code, you can double-check with the installation from binaries. If the strangeness goes away, it must be due to some quirk in your installation from source code, and then you know you must double-check the latter.



In the following sections, for clarity, I assume you have made a new directory named C:\Py and downloaded Python-2.4.3.tgz there. Of course, you can choose to name and place the directory as it best suits you.

______________________________________________________



2.1.1.2. Building the Python source code with Microsoft Visual Studio 2003



Open the workspace file C:\Py\Python-2.4.3\PCbuild\pcbuild.dsw with Microsoft Visual Studio—for example, by starting Windows Explorer, going to directory C:\Py\Python-2.4.3\PCbuild, and double-clicking on file pcbuild.dsw.



Choose Build Set Active Configuration python Win32 Release, and then choose Build Build python.exe. Visual Studio builds projects pythoncore and python, making files python24.dll and python.exe in C:\Py\Python-2.4.3\PCbuild. You can also build other subprojects (for example, with Build Batch Build...). To build subprojects _tkinter, bsddb, pyexpat, and zlib, you first need to download other open source packages and install them in the C:\Py directory. Follow the instructions in C:\Py\Python-2.4.3\PCbuild\readme.txt to build every Python package that is in the distribution.

________________________________________________________



With Visual Studio, an executable (.exe) built for release can interoperate fully only with dynamic load libraries (DLLs) also built for release, while an executable built for debugging interoperates fully only with DLLs also built for debugging. Trying to mix and match can cause program crashes and assorted strangeness. To help you avoid accidentally mixing parts built for release with others built for debugging, the Python workspace appends a _d to the name of debugging executables and DLLs

__________________________________________________



1.1.4. Installing after the build



python24.dll (or python24_d.dll if you want to run a debug-mode python_d.exe) must be in a directory from which Windows loads DLLs when needed. Suitable directories depend on your version of Windows; for example, c:\windows\system is one possibility. If you don't copy python24.dll to such a suitable directory, you can run Python only when the current directory is the directory in which python24.dll resides.



Similarly, python.exe must be in a directory in which Windows looks for executables, normally a directory listed in the Windows environment variable named PATH



C:\Py\Python-2.4.3\PC\readme.txt documents the various possibilities.



_____________________________________________________



mach's gut muy bien bene.ficial.or

____________________________________



2. Installing Python from Binaries



If your platform is popular and current, you may find pre-built and packaged binary versions of Python ready for installation. Binary packages are typically self-installing, either directly as executable programs, or via appropriate system tools, such as the RedHat Package Manager (RPM) on Linux and the Microsoft Installer (MSI) on Windows. Once you have downloaded a package, install it by running the program and interactively choosing installation parameters, such as the directory where Python is to be installed.



To download Python binaries, visit http://www.python.org and follow the link labeled Download. At the time of this writing, the binary installers directly available from the main Python site are a Windows Installer (MSI) package:



http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.3/Python-2.4.3.msi



and a Mac OS X Disk Image (.dmg) package suitable for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later on either a PowerPC or Intel processor ("Universal" format):



http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.3/Universal-MacPython-2.4.3.dmg

______________________________________________________



2.3. Installing Jython



To install Jython, you need a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that complies with Java 1.1 or higher. See http://www.jython.org/platform.html for advice on JVMs for your platform.

____________________________________________________



i'll scour the internet to see if i can find an image of a 'jython'...