Pushing Python to Windows workstations

[Peter Hansen]

C42 wrote:
> 
> If you wouldn't mind posting the script that would be great. I've been
> trying to get this to work all afternoon and so far haven't had much luck.

Okay, here goes.  For simplicity, I assume you have the following files in a 
directory that is in sys.path.  You can use PYTHONPATH, or .pth files as noted 
in site.py or some other approach.  The files are:

  sitecustomize.py  (loads automatically from site.py)
  pythoncom.py (loaded if you import pythoncom)
  pywintypes.py (loaded if you import pywintypes)
  dll_import.py (utility routines used by above two)


sitecustomize.py contains:
-------------------------
# site customization file for network installation of Python,
# to workaround problem loading win32api before either
# of these is loaded.

import pythoncom
import pywintypes
-------------------------


pythoncom.py contains:
-------------------------
# fake some stuff out so anyone can import pythoncom from a network install

import dll_import
dll_import.dll_import('pythoncom')
-------------------------


pywintypes.py contains:
-------------------------
# fake some stuff out so anyone can import pywintypes from a network install

import dll_import
dll_import.dll_import('pywintypes')
-------------------------


dll_import.py contains:
-------------------------
# fake some stuff out so importing win32 works with a network install 

import imp, sys, os

# patch pre-2.2 Pythons
if not hasattr(sys, '_getframe'):
    def _getframe():
        try:
            1/0
        except:
            f = sys.exc_info()[2].tb_frame.f_back
        return f

    sys._getframe = _getframe


def dll_import(modulename):
    # find my caller
    f = sys._getframe().f_back

    # build name of DLL with version number
    ver = '%1d%1d' % sys.version_info[:2]
    filename = modulename + ver + '.dll'
    dllpath = os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, filename)

    # Python can load the module
    mod = imp.load_module(modulename, None, dllpath, ('.dll', 'rb',
        imp.C_EXTENSION))

    # inject it into the global module list.
    sys.modules[modulename] = mod

    # And finally inject it into the globals() of my caller
    f.f_globals[modulename] = mod
-------------------------


Let me know if that (a) works, (b) is clear enough to use as-is.  If
not the former, I'll try to help troubleshoot.  If not the latter,
I *might* be able to help explain, but as I said this was developed
by trial-and-error.  Perhaps Mark Hudson or someone else can explain 
why this appears to be necessary.

-Peter