Python linker

[Ben Sizer]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> What framework (if any) is your Visual C++ code using?  If it's using
> wxWidgets (the framework underlying wxPython) I very much doubt that it
> can be a few kilobytes -- unless the wxWidgets DLL is already installed
> on the target machines so that it doesn't need to be packaged together
> with the application code.

Sure, I meant without wxWidgets.

> The easy solution is to compare apples with apples: if, in your
> application space, it is crucial to use only DLLs that are already
> installed on the target machines, you can do that from Python (with
> ctypes, for example) just as you can from C.

But even that is sadly not practical, since the Python DLL alone is
about 30 times the size of a tiny app like Notepad (for example).

> What generally happens in the real world is rather different:
> applications get programmed in whatever language and release/version is
> handy, and the runtimes are separately offered for download and install
> to those users who have not yet installed any previous application using
> the same language and release/version.

The real world is a big and diverse place, and I assure you that my
applications are no less real than your own! :)  Sometimes you simply
cannot pick a language and version at leisure and expect everybody to
install whatever is required. There are some things - casual
entertainment products for example, or one-shot system checking tools,
etc - where people are reluctant to install anything at all, and will
not bother if they see a 6MB download.

I wasn't saying this was a problem with Python - though I do expect
that .dll could be trimmed down a bit - but it is a bit of a shame that
I can't easily distribute something less than 1MB in size using Python.

-- 
Ben Sizer