Newbie Error? Compiling _tkinter from Source on Win32

[Tim Peters]

[posted & mailed]

[Chris Withers]
> From PCBuild/readme.txt:

>> _tkinter
>>     Python wrapper for the Tk windowing system.  Requires tcl832.exe
>>     from
> >         http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/downloadnow83.html
> >     Run the installer, forcing installation into dist\Tcl.
> >     Be sure to install everything, including the Tcl/Tk header files.

> So I installed tcl832 into E:\Python-2.0\Tcl and then tried to
> use VC++ 6.0 to build the _tkinter module, but I got:
> ...
> > E:\Python-2.0\Modules\_tkinter.c(44) : fatal error C1083:
> Cannot open include file: 'tcl.h': No such file or directory
> ...

Also from PCBuild/readme.txt:

    The following subprojects will generally NOT build out of the box.
    They wrap code Python doesn't control, and you'll need to download
    the base packages first and unpack them into siblings of PCbuilds's
    parent directory; for example, if your PCbuild is  .......\dist\src
    \PCbuild\, unpack into new subdirectories of dist\.

That's why the part you quoted said "forcing installation into dist\Tcl".
Unless your Python-2.0 is a sibling of PCbuild's parent directory (and,
trust me, it isn't <wink>), you're simply not following the instructions.

Bit o' advice:  the first thing a newbie should not do, and especially not
on Windows, is get creative about where they install things.  If you follow
instructions to the letter, they'll work; *then* you can get creative.