General development using Python

Question

I am unhappy with the general Python documentation and tutorials. I have worked with Python very little and I'm well aware of the fact that it is a lower-level language that integrates with the shell.

I came from a VB legacy background and I've already "un-learned" everything that I need to (I know, that language stinks, and isn't OOP or even useful!).

I have to get back into writing Python but I'm lacking one thing ... a general understanding of how to write applications that can be deployed (either in .exe format or in other formats).

So my issue is basically to understand how to go about writing programs and compiling them so they can be deployed to less tech-savvy people. Here's what I think I have to do, in a general sense:

=> Pick a GUI and just run through the tutorials to learn the interfaces as fast as possible.

This is all fine and dandy, but more than likely when I do this the people that I am sending solutions to will, if not receiving a simple .exe file, receive the package from me and say to themselves "what in the world do I do with this!?"

Is there someone who can suggest that I fix this or help them deal with complex languages like Python and programs written with it?

Answer 1

Why do you want to use python? It is not a language that can be packaged as an executable.

Answer 2

You cannot compile Python in any meaningful way that does what you want.

There are projects that "bundle" the CPython interpreter with your project, but this makes those files really big. I suggest just making sure that Python is installed on their end - it's a one-time thing anyway.

You don't expect to be able to run Javascript without a Javascript interpreter (such as a browser) so why would you expect differently for Python?

Answer 3

That's one last thing you need to un-learn, then :)
You distribute Python applications simply as they are - as a .py file (or a collection of .py files), and your users run them. It's really that simple!

In fact, deploying to .exe or equivalent would restrict your users to those running a compatible OS (same OS, same word/pointer size (32-bit or 64-bit), possibly other restrictions too), whereas deploying the .py files just requires that they have a compatible Python interpreter installed. Target the three most popular desktop platforms all at once, no Linux/Windows/Mac OS versioning. Target the lesser-known platforms like OS/2 with the same script. And completely eliminate the "compile step", which might take a long time with large projects. (Okay, your code does still get compiled, but the interpreter manages all that for you. All you need to know is that the .pyc files don't need to be distributed.)

Python - like most other modern high level languages - is designed to save you the hassle of working with the details. This is another of those hassle-savings. :)