How to build Python from a source distribution.
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NOTE: These notes are for building a Python from a machine-independent
source distribution, *not* for building a Python from a mac-specific
source distribution.

You will need a Python source distribution in tar form. So, the
first thing you need is a tar program for the mac. Suntar is
reasonable and can be found at the info-mac sites. Edit the
preferences to make it extract C sources with creator CWIE
and .py files as text files with creator Pyth, this will save
you work later.

You will also need CodeWarrior 8. If you have another development
environment you are on your own, basically.

You may also need the img distribution and the stdwin distribution.
If you don't want them you may have to edit some of the projects
to remove references to them.

When you've extracted everything you may have to unpack the
.hqx files in Mac:Resources and Mac:mwerks:Projects (but suntar
may have done this for you already).

You have to remove Modules:fmmodule.c, the SGI fm module, which has a
name conflict with the Mac Fmmodule.c.

Next, create your build directories. I use the following naming
convention:
build.macppc.shared		PowerPC shared-library
build.mac68k.stand		68K non-shared
and there are also projects for ppc standalone and some others, they
may be useful at times. The project files expect the build directories
to be located right in the main python folder, if you put them elsewhere
you will have to edit the access paths.

Move MWCPythonCoreRuntime.µ, PythonCore.µ, PythonPPC.µ and
PythonApplet.µ (from the Mac:mwerks:projects folder) to
build.macppc.shared, move Python68K.µ to build.mac68k.stand.

Build the projects. For the PPC projects, keep the order given above.
Do *not* run the python interpreter yet. First, move the interpreter
to the main python folder. For PPC, also move PythonCore to the main
python folder.

Now try your python interpreter, this will create an initial
preferences file.

For 68K python you are now done.

For PPC Python, don't try complicated scripts yet, you first have to
create the dynamically loadable modules. Create a folder PlugIns (in
the toplevel python folder) and move all the projects that have
"module" or "modules" in their name there. Build these projects. This
will create a number of ".exp" files, edit these files to contain only
all the "init" modules, and build the projects again. This latter step
isn't really essential, so feel free to skip it.

The next step is to create aliases for the various modules that "live
together" in one shared library. For this, take MkPluginAliases.py and
MkPluginAliases.rsrc from the Mac:scripts folder and move or copy them
to the python home folder.  Run the script from there.

If you haven't created all plugins you'll get some errors about files
not existing, don't worry. Don't forget to move the scripts back.

Next, make an alias of PythonCore (also named PythonCore) and put it
in System Folder:Extensions. This will ensure that you can run python
anywhere, not just from the folder where PythonCore lives.

Most of your environment is now setup. You can try it by running
EditPythonPrefs.py (in Mac:scripts), it should now work from there.

Lastly, you should setup some stuff needed for applet creation. First,
you should put PythonApplet (or an alias to it) in the python home
folder. Next, you should turn mkapplet.py (from mac:scripts) into an
applet itself: double-click it and give it itself as input in the
input file dialog.

Now that you have created mkapplet you can use this as a droplet:
drag-and-drop python sources onto it (EditPythonPrefs.py and
RunLibScript.py come to mind) and the applets will be created.

			Jack Jansen, CWI, 18 March 1996.