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Installation On Windows

2013-08-03

Brief instructions for installing CZWIGOUT on Windows.

Basic Install

The most basic version of what you need to do is unzip the archive, and execute the file czwigout.pyw in such a way that it is interpreted with Python 3. This should launch the program, and you are off and running.

Dependencies

This application is built with Python 3, so you must have a Python 3 interpreter installed and working on your computer. Python 3 is easy to install on Linux, Windows, and Mac.

Your Python 3 environment needs a few more things:

  • Tkinter - A native GUI toolkit for Python. It is often included in the original Python package, but may need to be installed.
  • LibYAML (optional) - A C library for reading YAML files. This makes it much faster to read library files.
  • PyYAML - A Python module for reading and writing YAML. We use YAML for reading and writing to library files.

Troubleshooting—All Platforms

Here are the most common things that could go wrong:

  • Python 3 is not installed.
  • The software is launched in a way that it is not interpreted with Python 3.
  • The software is launched in a way that it is interpreted with Python 2 instead of Python 3.
  • One of the dependencies is missing (Tkinter, YAML).
  • The file czwigout.pyw is not marked as executable.
  • The files are owned by a different user such that they are not executable.

Basic Install—Windows

This software does not need to be installed, and has no installer. Typically you unzip the archive, and store the resulting folder wherever you store other portable applications.

You launch the software by locating the file czwigout.pyw. Double-clicking this file will work if .pyw files are associated with Python 3. Another option is to right click on the main executable, and choose something like “Run with Python 3”.

Dependencies—Windows

Python 3: You will want to install the latest version of Python 3 from python.org if you have not done so already. If given the choice, also install support for Tkinter.

Tkinter: I believe that when you download and install Python 3 from python.org, for Windows, it comes with a working Tkinter by default. If installing Tkinter is a choice within the installer, then make sure to choose it.

LibYAML (optional): LibYAML makes it faster to read and write library files. While it is possible to install LibYAML, so it is available to PyYAML, on Windows, I do not have detailed information about how to accomplish this at the moment.

PyYAML: One option is to look for a package of PyYAML that matches your version of Windows, and your version of Python3, on the main PyYAML page.

An alternate method for installing PyYAML is to use pip, the Python package manager. For example, open up a command prompt and try this:

pip3 install pyyaml

Troubleshooting—Windows

When something goes wrong with a Python application on Windows, you usually get a window that displays the error stack. You can often locate the most meaningful part of the error messages, and do an internet search for that message. This gives you ideas about what is going wrong.

Create A Shortcut

My software does not touch the registry, nor make shortcuts. You may want to create some shortcuts to the main executable, and put them on your desktop or in menus. Like this:

  • Right-click on the executable and choose “Create Shortcut”.
  • A shortcut appears. Drag it to your desktop or menu.
  • Rename the shortcut to something shorter like czwigout.
  • Find the icon for Windows in the support_files/windows folder, and click to associate the icon with the new shortcut.
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