Newbie Question About Python

[Peter Hansen]

Fumari wrote:
> 
> Ive been starting to learn Python by looking over some tuts linked from
> the offical site.  Now it seems to me Python is like perl as in the
> system must have perl installed in order to run the program? is this
> correct, in python you right out the code then command line it?  Is
> there a way to make an exe file?

That's correct.  That's perhaps the _only_ way that Python is
"like Perl" :-), but it's correct.

This is a very common model for software; it's called having a 
"runtime" environment installed.  You need it for VB, Java, 
Perl, Python, and if you have C or C++ code which uses dynamically
loadable libraries (DLLs), you have a runtime there as well.

In other words, it's really not as big a deal as I think it
might seem at first glance.  Most reasonably sophisticated
software needs a decent installation package to install all
its parts, including documentation, libraries, resources such
as images and text databases and, yes, the basic application
itself.  That Python needs the interpreter installed as
well is not a big issue.

There are ways of making EXE files, but that doesn't 
necessarily mean you can get a _single_ file to install 
easily on a system which has no pre-existing Python 
installation.  At least one of the methods (I can't speak
for all of them) produces not only an EXE, but several
DLLs which must be installed along with the EXE for it 
to run properly.

-- 
----------------------
Peter Hansen, P.Eng.
peter at engcorp.com