looking into python...

[crankypuss]

Ben Finney wrote:

> crankypuss <invalid at invalid.invalid> writes:
> 
>> "Python code can be packaged into stand-alone executable programs for
>> some of the most popular operating systems, allowing the distribution
>> of Python-based software for use on those environments without
>> requiring the installation of a Python interpreter." (wikipedia)
>>
>> How correct is that?  Which "most popular operating systems" are
>> those?
> 
> Python's web site covers this. The Python environment is available for
> download <URL:https://www.python.org/downloads/> for all major
> operating systems.

Looking at https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-344/
it appears that "all major operating systems" includes "Mac OS X", 
"Windows", and "Source release".  I'm seeing nothing about Android, or 
BlackBerry OS-10, or mainframes, or linux.  Presumably the source code 
has been pre-built for linux in various distro repositories.  Maybe I'm 
missing the obvious as usual.

> Python is used in a huge range of fields, in organisations large and
> small <URL:https://www.python.org/about/success/>.

So are paper-clips.

>> Is there a good site to read for a quick overview of how one would
>> use python with a qt binding to write some GUI utilities?
> 
> GUI programming is covered at the Python wiki
> <URL:https://wiki.python.org/moin/GUI%20Programming%20in%20Python>.

I found that yesterday after posting, thank you for the validation.

Referring back to the wikipedia quote at the start of the post, I'm 
interested in how Python code is packaged into stand-alone executables.

I've done some work along those lines with PHP, which amounted to 
building a source-code linker to make sure that all the required 
functions are included in one file.  It was my intent to build a 
slightly-modified version of PHP to act as a front-end, appending all 
the required functions to that copy of the interpreter.  Alas what I 
find is that when statically linked that front-end is a bit over 15 
megabytes in size, which I consider impractical for distribution.

The plan all along has been to convert the PHP code to another language, 
so that aspect of the project seems to be escalating itself in the 
priority queue.

Do you think conversion from procedural PHP (PHP that does not use the 
PHP OO facilities) to Python is a practical idea, or are the languages 
too different?

Thank you.

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