[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Newbie path problem

[Russell E. Owen]

In article 
<6.0.2.0.0.20040225102754.02c3e180 at pop.promibra.intra.mrw.wallonie.be>,
 LALOUX Martin <M.Laloux at mrw.wallonie.be> wrote:

> I am new in Macpython (Panther, working in win32 python) and i have a 
> problem with paths. When I launch a script (doubleclicking the .py file -> 
> PythonLauncher) which needs to open a file located in the same directory, I 
> have a message which says "file" not found.
> When i launch the same script from terminal (cd..directory), no problem....

__file__ contains the location of the current file/module, and in 
general <module>.__file__ contains the path to any <module> you 
imported, e.g. os.__file__.

So..., if you set filename to name of the file you want to locate:
mydir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
filepath = os.path.join(mydir, filename)

I personally use this trick to find resources (e.g. help files), e.g. 
put help files in a package called Help, then find them via:
import Help
helpdir = os.path.dirname(Help.__file__)

It works very well. However, a minor warning: if you plan to ever turn 
your script into a normal double-clickable Mac application, you'll find 
that job easier if you avoid mixing python and non-python code (due to 
limitations in bundlbuilder, the module that builds Mac apps).

-- Russell