On 12/30/2022 3:53 AM, Michael Mandell wrote:
[Edited Message Follows]
We use the newer version of D-Rats but not the Python 3 beta ---yet.
That one has a convoluted installation and we have enoiugh trouble
teaching the FM/HT types digital stuff already.
Is this the more recent instructions that I have posted and are at , but have received absolutely no feedback on?
Or is this one of the older betas?
The first blocking issue in simplifying things is that the official python 3 GTK package from Pypi needed for Microsoft Windows does not build on Microsoft Windows in native mode because it is incompatible with the current free edition of Microsoft Visual C++. I just do not have the time to debug this blocking issue, or see what other dragons show up once we get past that version. All searches on the wild wild web for this issue pretty much are resolved by the user switching to using msys2 for GTK packages.
Some people are using Anaconda or ActiveState python distributions as there are free, but only for "Non Commercial Use". Because of that restriction, I will not be installing or testing either of those products.
ActiveState has many limitations on just using the free version, such as having only one active program using it at a time.
The Anaconda Python license would allow redistributing it, but I will not be testing using it to build a single install package on Microsoft Windows. Someone (not me) can try building a single package to see if it works and uploading it. It should mainly be dependent of if Anaconda provides the working GTK packages.
In theory, the msys2 install that I have documented could be packaged into a single package for installation. I have not had the time to test that, and do not plan to be testing doing that.
Creating a single package is a problem as would need to be recreated if any security patches are needed for any component that is not in the d-rats repository. That is a large number of components to monitor and follow alerts on.
Once the msys2 environment is setup, it is really simple to keep d-rats up to date. And it is relatively easy to just run the update script to keep the msys2 packages up to data.
73,
-John
wb8tyw
