Best way to have full Python install under cygwin/XP?

Question

Pythons installed under WinXP have dirs like DLLs, DOC, include, etc. but python (2.5) installed with cygwin is a bare python.exe. My motivation for asking is that 'things' under XP don't seem to be finding 'other things' under cygwin and vice versa, I want to start developing with Qt, I like shells, and I do not like MS; I thought if I got all the components under one roof, I could finally start to have scripts find executables which could find files and such. 1. Can I simply copy the contents of an XP installation into the cygwin tree? 2. Is the XP flavor of Python different from the cygwin flavor? (Same CPU, he pointed out, naively.) 3. Someone must work with a full-fledged (if snakes had feathers...) Python from within cygwin; how is it done?

Disclaimer 1: I have never compiled anything under XP or cygwin; had hoped not to have to go there, hence, python in the first place. Disclaimer 2: sorry if this is a ServerFault question, but they seemed to be system people over there and this is (in my case) a lowly desktop.

Answer 1

I use Python from within cygwin, but I don't use the version that cygwin gives you the option of installing as I don't have the control over version number used that I need (we use an older version at work). I have my python version installed via the windows installer (the xp version as you put it) and add the /cygdrive/c/Python2x directory to my PATH environment variable.

Answer 2

好吧，在我的Windows环境中，我使用活动的python ，到目前为止，它对我有用。

Answer 3

Just a little off the question, but...

Have you considered running Sun's VirtualBox with Fedora or Ubuntu inside of it? I'm assuming you have to / need to use windows because you still are, but don't like it. Then you would have python running inside a native linux desktop without any of the troubles you mentioned.

And if you want something that is really easy and portable, then just use Python on Windows, not mixed in with cygwin.

$0.02

Answer 4

This probably has little value, but... I found myself in this exact situation -- we use ActivePython2.5 in production (pure windows environment) and I was trying to do my development within cygwin and cygwin's Python...

After ripping out half of my hair, I have now switched over to Console2, gvim, iPython and ActivePython2.5.

I'm less than thrilled dealing with Windows tools (and their concomitant warts), but at least I'm not getting in my own way when it comes to development. For a while I found I was spending more time trying to get my tools to play nice than actually getting any work done.

Good luck on this one.

Answer 5

I accidentally stumbled on this - If I launch Cygwin from the Cygwin.bat file (which is present directly under the main folder), I get access to the Python version installed under Cygwin (ie 2.6.8)

If I instead launch the Cygwin from bash.exe under bin directory (C:\\Cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe for me), running "Python -V" shows that I have access to 2.7.3 version of Python (that was installed for Windows).

So, I guess you can do the same.