I have windows xp, I have found some python libraries that only work for windows xp and thus if you have a mac os or linux or windows 7, you can't download my program because it won't work, how to make these libraries compatible with these OS, I can't ask the creator of the libraries so I have to download the source code and modify it, and i have to make it compatible on these OS using my xp :D well my brother's pc is windows 7, but I don't have mac OS or linux (unless i can use VM)
EDIT
my application is not simple
You're asking a very general question. Perhaps overly general.
Generally, unless your application is relatively simple, it's impossible to guarantee that it is going to work on Linux and Mac OS X by only having Windows available. You will have to at least test it on Linux. Mac OS X is rather similar to Linux in many aspects, so you may get off the hook there, although for more complex cases it won't suffice.
Python is not much different from other languages in this respect - it makes writing cross platform code easier, but it won't solve all your problems.
Luckily, installing Linux on a VM is quick and free. Personally I use VirtualBox with a Ubuntu installation on top. It takes less than an hour to set up such a system from scratch (download Vbox, download an Ubuntu image and install it).
Your question is quite broad:
1) Development and testing:
Use VMs, absolutely, they are great for testing on OS you don't natively use, and to have a clean environment for testing (eg. test even windows stuff on a clean windows VM if you can, you might find out you're missing some dependencies that you took for granted on your dev machine).
2) Actual library porting:
Depending on the library this may or may not be difficult. Why is this library only working on windows? does it use specific DLLs, via ctypes or swig or some other bindings. If the library is python code (not a C library), is it tied to windows python APIs?
There are many things to take into account, if using system specific APIs/libs, can they be faked on other OSs (write small abstraction over them), or does it require a lot more code. You get the gist.
Related
I need to automate a cross-platform application build. Entire build runs on Windows machine. Part of it is written in Python and compiles for OS X. Currently this part of build is done manually on OS X.
I tried pyinstaller but it looks like it only building for the platform that it is running on. I also tried py2app but it did not install on Windows.
Are there any tools to compile Python script to OS X app on Windows machine?
Short answer:
Apparently, no simple way to do this with the standard set of tools you have mentioned. I outline a completely unprobable solution in the end that's probably too complex to consider.
End result: Keep doing it manually, it's probably the best option so far.
Drawing from credible and/or official sources:
There's already a long and curated list of options specified in micheal0x2a's excelent answer in Create a single executable from a Python project which outlines most tools available for creating standalone distributions of a Python program. One line stands out:
Also, unless otherwise noted, all programs listed below will produce an exe specifically for the operating system it's running in.
I might have read things wrong but there's no explicit note of cross platform support.
Similar lists can be found in in Distribution Utilities and Freezing Your Code — The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python. From these we can take a look at the Windows supported projects:
bbfreeze: Not maintained, no documentation on limitations generally superceded by the rest in this list.
PyInstaller: According to their documentation:
PyInstaller is tested against Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, it is not a cross-compiler: to make a Windows app you run PyInstaller in Windows; to make a Linux app you run it in Linux, etc. PyInstaller has been used successfully with AIX, Solaris, and FreeBSD, but is not tested against them.
PyInstaller once tried to support cross-compilation (From Linux -> Windows) but later dropped the idea.
cx_freeze: Looking at their Freezing for other platforms question in their Frequently Asked Questions list:
cx_Freeze works on Windows, Mac and Linux, but on each platform it only makes an executable that runs on that platform. So if you want to freeze your program for Windows, freeze it on Windows; if you want to run it on Macs, freeze it on a Mac.
py2app: This is not an option since py2app is supported only OSX machines based on their note:
NOTE: py2app must be used on OSX to build applications, it cannot create Mac applications on other platforms.
So installing it on windows is a no-go.
This wraps out the tools available on for creating standalone applications on Windows. Even if not on Windows though, solutions don't exist for creating an OS agnostic tool.
The general consensus for achieving these sort of things is via Virtual Machines; you create a VM image of the target OS, run the dedicated tool for that OS inside the vm and then tranfer the bundled executable to compatible machines. Since OSX is generally not easy to virtualize, from what I know, you kinda run out of luck here.
One complex probable way:
Now, the reason why I said there is no simple way to do this is because there might be one but, from what I can see, it is so tedious you shouldn't even consider it. The general issue we're facing here is that executables for windows are simply not compatible with OSX, heck, Linux executables aren't either. So what we need is the ability to cross-compile things.
One compiler that I've heard supports cross-compilation is clang. So, in order remedy the incompatibility of executables, you could theoretically use clang as a cross compiler. Problem is, this is not a simple task; it is probably way harder than what you're willing to do since it is riddled with complex issues (From OSX to Windows example).
If you do actually find a way to that you now need a .cpp/.c file from your python scripts. Thankfully this is something that can be done by using tools like Nuitka or Cython.
The gist of these is the same, enter .py exit .cpp/.c. The second tricky part might be setting up the clang compiler to be used with these. I honestly have no idea if anyone has done this.
I haven't looked into them much, but for Nuitka, I know that it can also be used to create a standalone executable when passed the --standalone flag (See: Moving to other machines). So, theoretically you could use Nuitka with clang configured to cross-compile for OSX. Then you can rest; you've earned it.
You can use a docker image https://github.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX like this to simulate a mac computer.
Then from this simulated mac you could install the pyinstaller and run your command from there.
This would then produce the desired file.
Some people do the same way to create windows executables using pyinstaller on linux.
I dont see why this could not work from windows to mac.
Install fabric (Python module, easily installed with pip) on your Windows machine so that you can run the build on your Mac as part of the same automated build process.
Fabric allows you to utilize SSH from Python. So long as you know how to access the Mac over SSH (just need the IP, username, and password), this is easy. Set it up like this:
from fabric.api import env
env.host_string = '<IP of the Mac Here>'
env.user = '<Username on the Mac>'
env.password = '<Password of the user>'
Then copy over the necessary source files from the Windows machine to the Mac like this (once fabric has been set up as above):
from fabric.operations import put
put(r'\path\to\local\source\files', '/path/to/where/you/want/them')
Now you want to run your build tool, whatever it is. You'll need to use run or sudo for that, depending on if the tool requires admin privileges or not.
from fabric.operations import run, sudo
# sudo works the same as run if you need that instead
run('/path/to/build/tool arguments for build tool')
Finally you have the build output which you can retrieve using get.
from fabric.operations import get
get('/path/to/dist/on/mac', '\local\path\to\store\on\windows')
There we go. Pretty simple. No VM needed - just automate the process that you were already manually doing before. The only real requirement is that your Mac has to be available to be connected to during the build process. If you don't have a readily available Mac server, consider just picking up a used Mac Mini - you can get them for as little as $50 on ebay, if budget is a concern.
I'm new to Mac, and I have OS X 10.9.1. The main question is whether it is better to create a virtual machine with Linux and do port forwarding or set all packages directly to the Mac OS and work with it directly? If I create a virtual machine, I'm not sure how it will affect the health of SSD and ease of development. On the other hand, I also do not know how to affect the stability and performance of Mac OS installation packages directly into it. Surely there are some best practices, but I do not know them.
On my Mac, I use Python and PyCharm and all the usual Unix tools, and I've always done just fine. Regard OS X as a Unix machine with a very nice GUI on top of it, because it basically is -- Mac OS X is POSIX-compliant, with BSD underpinnings. Why would you even consider doing VirtualBox'd Linux? Even if you don't want to relearn the hotkeys, PyCharm provides a non-OS X mapping, and in Terminal, CTRL and ALT work like you expect.
If you're used to developing on Windows but interfacing with Unix machines through Cygwin, you'll be happy to use Terminal, which is a normal bash shell and has (or can easily get through Homebrew) all the tools you're used to. Plus the slashes go the right way and line endings don't need conversion.
If you're used to developing on a Linux distro, you'll be happy with all the things that "just work" and let you move on with your life.
So in answer to your question, do straight Mac OS X. Working in a virtualized Linux environment imparts a cost and gains you nothing.
I do all of my main development on OSX. I deploy on a linux box. Pycharm (CE) is your friend.
My friend does not have Python or the libraries needed installed on his machine to run a program I have written. Is there a simple way to export my project (currently sitting in pydev on my x64 Windows 7 machine) so that he could run it on his machine? (He has OSX, but he could find Unix or Windows if needed.) My program uses several modules, and depends on networkx, wx, and matplotlib.
Feel free to move this to programming if overflow isn't appropriate.
Thanks!
You could use py2exe (Windows), cx_Freeze (should work on any platform that Python itself works on) or py2app (Mac OS X).
OS X actually already has python installed, albeit a somewhat old version. On OS X, a great solution to getting newer python Mac Ports package manager.
On Windows, python has an installer, and many of the most popular modules also have installers that respect the installed python. Alternatively, you can use Cygwin to install X-Windows versions of same.
On unix like platforms, well, you're already good to go. Python is preinstalled on just about every distro, and the package manager will have all of the popular modules ready to install, too.
I am trying to use PyQt4. I have downloaded its LINUX version and trying to install it with Cygwin(because I have windows on my PC and I want to use linux, therefore I am using Cygwin). I don't know how to install it ? please guide me . There is no such file like setup.py, install....what should I do??
PyQt4 and Qt are cross-platform. If you write cross-platform code, you don't need to develop on any specific OS. Testing on different platforms from time to time is a good idea, but good cross-platform code will usually just work.
Don't use any Windows-specific features, Windows-specific code. In particular, don't use subprocess unless calling shell commands is part of your app, use os.path instead of writing paths yourself, don't hardcode any paths, verify that each library that you're using is cross-platform, and you'd be fine.
And when you're testing on Linux, test on actual Linux. Cygwin is another, different platform. You can try using a virtual machine with VirtualBox.
P.S. You might also look at Nokia's new PySide which has more liberal license than PyQt4 and supports most of what PyQt4 supports with nearly the same interface. It's a bit young, but by the time you complete your application, it would probably be more common.
I've been developing python web apps using django and appengine.
I'm planning on buying a macbook to develop iPhone apps.
I wonder if I will be able to develop my python apps without too much changes on a mac , or if keeping them on a PC will be better?
Thanks
Macs run Unix, Unix makes python development even easier! (IMHO)
In other news: one of python's big selling points is that it's multi-platform, it can run as well on Windows as on Linux as on a Mac. Heck, here's a list of other platforms it can run on.
All that to say, you can move your python projects back and forth between a mac and pc with relative ease as long as you don't use any platform specific libraries. So, no you shouldn't have to do anything terribly special to make it work.
Developing python for app-engine on a mac works like a charm.
Python development on a Mac will be similar to Python development on other *NIX-based operating systems which, in some ways, can be easier than on Windows. As long as none of the modules you are using are Windows-only then you should have no problem!
I usually develop with Python on OS X and it's a real pleasure to work it.
Just remember to install Macports;
with macports installing Python versions, Python libraries, Eclipse and so on is really easy.
I would look at Homebrew instead of MacPorts - Link