1998-06-26 15:01:52 +00:00
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<TITLE>Creating standalone applications with Python</TITLE>
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<H1>Creating standalone applications with Python</H1>
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1999-12-03 16:00:20 +00:00
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With <a href="example2.html#applet">BuildApplet</a> you can build a standalone
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Python application that works like
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any other Mac application: you can double-click it, run it while the
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Python interpreter is running other scripts, drop files on it, etc. It is, however,
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still dependent on the whole Python installation on your machine: the PythonCore
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engine, the plugin modules and the various Lib folders.<p>
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In some cases you may want to create a true application, for instance because
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you want to send it off to people who may not have Python installed on their
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machine, or because you the application is important and you do not want changes
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in your Python installation like new versions to influence it.
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<H2>The easy way</H2>
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The easiest way to create an application from a Python script is simply by dropping
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it on the <code>BuildApplication</code> applet in the main Python folder.
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BuildApplication has a similar interface as BuildApplet: you drop a script on
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it and it will process it, along with an optional <code>.rsrc</code> file.
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It does ask one extra question: whether you want to build your application for
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PPC macs only, 68K macs or any Mac.<P>
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What BuildApplication does, however, is very different. It parses your script,
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recursively looking for all modules you use, bundles the compiled code for
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all these modules in PYC resources, adds the executable machine code for the
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PythonCore engine, any dynamically loaded modules you use and a main program, combines
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all this into a single file and adds a few preference resources (which you
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can inspect with <code>EditPythonPrefs</code>, incidentally) to isolate the
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new program from the existing Python installation.<P>
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Usually you do not need to worry about all this, but occasionally you may have
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to exercise some control over the process, for instance because your
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program imports modules that don't exist (which can happen if your script
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is multi-platform and those modules will never be used on the Mac). See
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the section on <a href="#directives">directives</a> below for details.
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If you get strange error messages about missing modules it may also be worthwhile
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to run macfreeze in report mode on your program, see below.
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<P>
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<H2>Doing it the hard way</H2>
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With the <EM>macfreeze</EM> script, for which BuildApplication is a simple
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wrapper, you can go a step further and create CodeWarrior projects and
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sourcefiles which can then be used to build your final application. While
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BuildApplication is good enough for 90% of the use cases there are situations
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where you need macfreeze itself, mainly if you want to embed your frozen Python
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script into an existing C application, or when you need the extra bit of speed:
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the resulting application will start up a bit quicker than one generated
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with BuildApplication. <p>
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When you start
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1998-06-26 15:01:52 +00:00
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<code>Mac:Tools:macfreeze:macfreeze.py</code> you are asked for the
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script file, and you can select which type of freeze to do. The first
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time you should always choose <em>report only</em>, which will produce a
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listing of modules and where they are included from in the console
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window. Macfreeze actually parses all modules, so it may crash in the
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process. If it does try again with a higher debug value, this should
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show you where it crashes. <p>
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1999-12-03 16:00:20 +00:00
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<h2><a name="directives">Directives</a></h2>
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1998-06-26 15:01:52 +00:00
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For more elaborate programs you will often see that freeze includes
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modules you don't need (because they are for a different platform, for
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instance) or that it cannot find all your modules (because you modify
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<code>sys.path</code> early in your initialization). It is possible to
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include directives to tell macfreeze to add items to the search path and
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include or exclude certain modules. All your directives should be in the
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main script file. <p>
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Directives have the following form:
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<pre>
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# macfreeze: command argument
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</pre>
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The trigger <code>macfreeze:</code> must be spelled exactly like that,
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but the whitespace can be any combination of spaces and tabs. Macfreeze
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understands the following directives:
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<DL>
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<DT> <code>path</code>
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<DD> Prepend a folder to <code>sys.path</code>. The argument is a
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pathname, which should probably be relative (starting with a colon) and
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is interpreted relative to the folder where the script lives.
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<DT> <code>include</code>
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<DD> Include a module. The module can either be given by filename or by
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module name, in which case it is looked up through the normal method.
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<DT> <code>exclude</code>
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<DD> Exclude a module. The module must be given by modulename. Even when
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freeze deems the module necessary it will not be included in the
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application.
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1999-12-03 16:00:20 +00:00
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<DT> <code>optional</code>
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<DD> Include a module if it can be found, but don't complain if it can't.
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1998-06-26 15:01:52 +00:00
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</DL>
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There is actually a fourth way that macfreeze can operate: it can be used
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to generate only the resource file containing the compiled <code>PYC</code>
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resources. This may be useful if you have embedded Python in your own
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application. The resource file generated is the same as for the CodeWarrior
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generation process. <p>
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<h2>Freezing with CodeWarrior</h2>
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To freeze with CodeWarrior you need CodeWarrior, obviously, and a full
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source distribution of Python. You select the <em>Codewarrior source and
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project</em> option. You specify an output folder, which is by default
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the name of your script with <code>.py</code> removed and
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<code>build.</code> prepended. If the output folder does not exist yet
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it is created, and a template project file and bundle resource file are
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deposited there. Next, a source file <code>macfreezeconfig.c</code> is
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created which includes all builtin modules your script uses, and a
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resource file <code>frozenmodules.rsrc</code> which contains the
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<code>PYC</code> resources for all your Python modules. <p>
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The project expects to live in a folder one level below the Python root
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folder, so the next thing you should do is move the build folder there.
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It is a good idea to leave an alias with the same name in the original
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location: when you run freeze again it will regenerate the
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<code>frozenmodules.rsrc</code> file but not the project and bundle
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files. This is probably what you want: if you modify your python sources
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you have to re-freeze, but you may have changed the project and bundle
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1999-12-03 16:00:20 +00:00
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files, so you don't want to regenerate them. <p>
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1998-06-26 15:01:52 +00:00
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An alternative is to leave the build folder where it is, but then you
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have to adapt the search path in the project. <p>
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The project is set up to include all the standard builtin modules, but
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the CW linker is smart enough to exclude any object code that isn't
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referenced. Still, it may be worthwhile to remove any sources for
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modules that you are sure are not used to cut back on compilation time.
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You may also want to examine the various resource files (for Tcl/Tk, for
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instance): the loader has no way to know that these aren't used. <p>
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You may also need to add sourcefiles if your script uses non-standard
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builtin modules, like anything from the <code>Extensions</code> folder. <p>
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The <code>frozenbundle.rsrc</code> resource file contains the bundle
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information. It is almost identical to the bundle file used for applets,
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with the exception that it sets the <code>sys.path</code> initialization
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to <code>$(APPLICATION)</code> only. This means that all modules will only
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be looked for in PYC resources in your application. <p>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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