Windows question from Mac guy

[Charles Hartman]

I'm sitting here (briefly!) with a Windows machine trying to build a
distributable for my app. I'm using py2exe and Inno Setup. (This is
Apple-framework Python 2.3, wxPython 2.5.3.8.) Everything works! Except
.. . .

My app has a data file, scandictionary.txt, that it needs to load when
it starts up. On Mac it gets stuffed into the app bundle so it's hidden
and there's no problem finding it. On Windows (XP), Inno Setup is
putting it where I expected it to be, in the {app} directory along with
my app's .exe and the various .dlls etc that Python needs. But my app
isn't finding it. Here's the code I use for that:

TEXTDICTIONARY = 'scandictionary.txt'
.. . .
try:
f = open(TEXTDICT, 'rU')
except IOError: # dict file has gone astray
wildcard = "All files (*.*) | *.*"
dlg = wx.FileDialog(None, message="Locate the scandictionary file",
defaultDir=os.getcwd(), defaultFile="", wildcard=wildcard,
style=wx.OPEN | wx.CHANGE_DIR)
if dlg.ShowModal() == wx.ID_OK:
f = open(dlg.GetPath())
dlg.Destroy()

When it doesn't find the file by itself (why not??), it starts looking
down in some godawful place in Common or something, which is likely to
baffle a user. (It baffles me, though yes I *can* navigate to the right
place.)

This is pretty much the same code I use when the user selects "Load
text file," and the app goes straight to the right directory (its own
directory), where it finds a sample text file I supply. Is os.getcwd()
working differently in the two cases?

Help help, I'm confused. Any help much appreciated.


Charles Hartman
Professor of English, Poet in Residence
http://cherry.conncoll.edu/cohar
http://villex.blogspot.com

 

[Thomas Heller]

I'm sitting here (briefly!) with a Windows machine trying to build a
distributable for my app. I'm using py2exe and Inno Setup. (This is
Apple-framework Python 2.3, wxPython 2.5.3.8.) Everything works!
Except . . .

My app has a data file, scandictionary.txt, that it needs to load when
it starts up. On Mac it gets stuffed into the app bundle so it's
hidden and there's no problem finding it. On Windows (XP), Inno Setup
is putting it where I expected it to be, in the {app} directory along
with my app's .exe and the various .dlls etc that Python needs. But my
app isn't finding it.

The problem may be that the current directory is not the directory where
the exe is. You may get the same problem in the unfrozen Python script,
depending on how you start it.
Here is code that I use, it works both for the script and the exe:

import imp, os, sys

def main_is_frozen():
return (hasattr(sys, "frozen") or # new py2exe
hasattr(sys, "importers") # old py2exe
or imp.is_frozen("__main__")) # tools/freeze

def get_main_dir():
if main_is_frozen():
return os.path.dirname(sys.executable)
return os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])

Thomas

 

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

isn't finding it. Here's the code I use for that:

Can't be the actual code...

TEXTDICTIONARY = 'scandictionary.txt'
. . .
try:
f = open(TEXTDICT, 'rU')

TEXTDICT is NOT the same as TEXTDICTIONARY, so I'd have no idea
what it is looking for... <G>


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