Re: pdesk and windows 98

I wasn't aware that it was broken on Win 98....

I would try if possible to use at least Python 2.4, is that not available 
for Windows 98?

There may be a compatibility library that you download from Microsoft that 
will make PDesk run on Windows 98, it all depends on what the problems you 
were having were.

My guess is that the newer wxWindows does not work on Win98. So perhaps if 
an older wxWindows was used with the Python 2.4 and the source code 
everything would be more or less good.

I believe the source code has been modified to work with the newer 
wxWindows though so that could cause problems, the changes were just names 
of things.

On Sun, 19 Nov 2006, "mcewanw" wrote:

> Maybe like some other poor souls my old laptop runs Windows 98 and I
> love Progect so wanted Pdesk too. But the binary download wouldn't run
> on Win 98 :-(  I tried emailing this list but no-one maybe saw the
> post. Anyway, I've had some partial success so thought someone else
> might find this useful and someone clever might be able to suggest a
> better approach plus fill in the final bit I haven't managed so far
> (compiling the python to an execuatable with py2exe - just now I'm
> running pdesk from source...). Anyway, I didn't have a clue what I was
> doing so the following is maybe crazy, but kind of seems to work.
>
> To get pdesk kind of but not entirely working on Windows 98, I
> somewhat haphazardly did the following:
>
> 1. I had to download the beta source (unzip and then untar it). I got
> it from:
> http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pdesk/Pdesk_beta7_src.tgz?modtime=1090368000&big_mirror=0
>
There may be newer versions of the source, particularly in SVN, although 
they might give you more compile errors.

2. I installed the older Python version 2.3.5 (from
> http://www.fastmirrors.org/python/pub/www.python.org/2.3.5/ ). Newer
> versions of Python didn't want to compile the source...

Again, you should try and use Python 2.4, and I would think that the 
regular windows installer should work on Win98, although I have not tried 
it.

> 3. I thus needed to install the corresponding older wxPython version
> wxPythonWIN32-2.4.2.4-Py23.exe to go with the above version of Python
> (from:
> http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wxpython/wxPython2.6-win32-ansi-2.6.3.3-py23.exe
> )

And then, it might be easier to find a wxPython to go with it.

> 4. I had to add the following line to my C:\autoexec.bat file and then
> restart my system (so that it can find the python program in its
> PATH): set path=%path%;C:\python23

You could also try a ActiveState Python, they should have 2.4, and it may 
be more seamlessly integrated with Windows. I have no idea what the 
differences are between ActiveState and regular Python.

> 5. After unzipping and untarring the source, I used Windows Explorer
> to enter the created source directory (src).
> 6. Then I opened a command window (Start Button > Run > command)
> intending to try running Pdesk from these source files(make sure you
> cd to the src directory where the untarred source files are).
> 7. So, to do that,  I entered:
>
>     python  pdesk.pyw
>
> but that came back with errors I didn't understand. So, in the src
> folder I opened the text file "pdesk.log" and noticed the error
> message: File "DrawSettings.py", line 30, in ?
>    from pix import img
> ImportError: cannot import name img

This probably means that the pix module is somehow not available, img 
would be an class from that file that is being imported into the local 
name space.

I'm not really sure why that would happen, since it should still be a 
problem in newer versions of the source, can you check if the pix 
subdirectory has a file in it called __init__.py? If that is not present, 
the pix directory will not be considered a module and you will  have the 
problem you mentioned.

In my code, it does not seem to exist, you should be able to create an 
empty file of that name, and things may work better.

> > 8. I hadn't a clue... but decided 
to move the file pix.py from the > subfolder src\pix up one level to src
>    Then I tried again with: python   pdesk.pyw
>
> That went a bit further, said last session didn't end properly - I
> clicked OKAY and then it came with new error messages. I looked in
> pdesk.log again and found error message:
>
> File "D:\install\pdesk\src\PluginManager.py", line 30, in ?
>    from plugins.PDeskPlugin import *
> ImportError: No module named plugins.PDeskPlugin
>
> Anyway, I then moved the file PDeskPlugin.py from the subfolder
> src\plugins up one level to src  and tried again with:
> 9. python  pdesk.pyw
>
> but that didn't work (same error message as in 8. above):
>
>  File "D:\install\pdesk\src\PluginManager.py", line 30, in ?
>    from plugins.PDeskPlugin import *
> ImportError: No module named plugins.PDeskPlugin

Again, make sure there is an empty __init__.py file, my code has that 
empty file, hopefully yours does not :).

>
> 10. So this time I opened up txt file PluginManager.py and commented
> out line 30 by putting a hash in front the offending line: from
> plugins.PDeskPlugin import *  (i.e. it is now: #from
> plugins.PDeskPlugin import * ), and I tried again with:
>

Removing that code should only remove plugin functionality, that may not 
be a big deal for you. However, it may also cause PDesk to crash if it 
tries to use plugin functionality (likely by using a plugin menu).

> 
python pdesk.pyw >
> Yeah..!!! Pdesk started up!!!!!
>
> Okay, so I have no idea how important the loss of plugins.PDeskPlugin
> import is (probably a lot...:-( ), and I'm sure there is a quick fix
> for all of the above - I just don't know it... but I'd be glad if
> someone would tell me the correct procedure!
>
> 10. Anyway, I wanted an executable version of pdesk now, so I
> downloaded py2exe version py2exe-0.6.5.win32-py2.3.exe from:
> http://downloads.sourceforge.net/py2exe/py2exe-0.6.5.win32-py2.3.exe?modtime=1142828339&big_mirror=0
>
> and ran it to install it on my windows 98 system.
>
> 11. Now, from the pdesk src folder (still in the command window shell)
> I entered: python setup.py install
> However, that ended with the error message:
> error: can't copy 'w9xpopen.exe': doesn't exist or not a regular file

I believe this is one of two things:

A wxWindows program that we copy.

OR

More likely, I think it is the Palm program that lets us figure out what 
people can install projects for.

If you search your hard disk for it, you should be able to find something 
with a name similar to it.

>
> And that is where I am currently stuck. Any help appreciated... :-)
>
> (I guess I'm looking for w98popen.exe - I'm going to Google that and
> see if I can find any clues...)
>
> William
>

My laptop has had a serious failure, so I will be rebuilding it in the 
next day or so. Because of this I may not be on top of my email.

It may also slow the list down, if one of the other moderators does not 
approve emails.

Rick



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