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1998-06-24
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GENERAL NOTES ON THE AMIGA VERSION OF PYTHON 1.4
Irmen de Jong - ijong@gak.nl
27 dec. 1996
MODULE SEARCH PATH
------------------
Version 1.4 introduced a different treatment of the module search path.
The current directory is no longer by default part of the module search
path. Instead, the following procedure gives the module search path
(sys.path):
- sys.path is set to the default PYTHONPATH, which is "Python:lib"
- if the global environment variable PYTHONPATH is set, the paths listed
there will be inserted before the default path. PYTHONPATH is a semicolon
(;) separated list of directories, like "WORK:pylib;Python:lib/mymods".
- the path of the script which was given as an argument is inserted in front
of the search path. If no script was given as argument, '' will be inserted
(which is the current directory).
AMIGA SPECIFIC MODULES
----------------------
Version 1.4 introduced a clean way of installing platform specific library
files. In the Lib drawer there is anoter drawer called site-python. All
Amiga specific modules are put here. There is a simple way of using them:
place the
import site
statement somewhere at the top of all code that must use site-specific
modules. This will modify the module search path and also run any site
specific initialization code (by importing the sitecustomize module, which
should also be placed in the site-python drawer). Currently there is no
sitecustomize module on the Amiga. If you don't like to import the site
module (why?) just use sys.path.append('Python:Lib/site-python').
You can now simply import any Amiga specific modules, regardless of them
being built-in (like arexxll) or in a .py source file:
import ARexx
POSIX REPLACEMENTS
------------------
In lib/ there are dummy modules `posixpath' and `posix'. They just import
`amigapath' and `amiga', thereby making some other modules and files work
because they don't use os.path and os.
About the networking support (AmiTCP)
-------------------------------------
The python binary is compiled with AmiTCP support. The interpreter still
works even if you don't have AmiTCP, but the extra functionality (mainly
the socket module) can't be used without AmiTCP (obviously). Some extra
functions already work if you only have the usergroup.library, and not the
full AmiTCP package: the crypt, pwd and grp modules for instance. A
MultiuserFileSystem-compatible usergroup.library can be found on Aminet (I
didn't try it -- beware). Usergroup.library can also be found in the demo
version of AmiTCP, which is also on Aminet.
About Timezones
---------------
As another side-effect of linking in AmiTCP stuff, Python extracts the
timezone information from your current locale preferences. No need anymore
for a TZ environment var. (One small problem: the name of the timezone is
no longer known, and is replaced by '???'.) If the locale prefs couldn't be
read, the timezone information is taken from ENV:TZ, which must be a string
like 'MET-1' (MET, -1 hour from GMT).
sys.platform
------------
This is defined as 'amiga'. No upper case A.
About modifying library files
-----------------------------
You should not change anything in one of the library files. The library
files should always behave the same on all platforms that supports them.
(Note: I said BEHAVE. You are free to modify the implementation but the
BEHAVIOR should remain the same.)
Workbench startup
-----------------
Since 1.4, Amiga Python contains some code to make it possible to use the
Workbench to start python or python programs. The interpreter already has
an icon. Doubleclick it to start python in interactive mode. Use the
well-known multiselect (shift-click) to select any scripts to execute. Any
additional files which are multi-selected will be passed as command line
arguments.
SCRIPT ICONS. Look in the `Icons' directory for icon templates: use
def_py.info and def_pyc.info as icon templates for .py and .pyc files.
Just make sure the default tool is set to `Python:Python'. Any tooltypes
in the icon are converted to command line arguments for the Python
interpreter. The `-c' option is special: don't enter the program text
after the `-c' option, but make a NEW TOOLTYPE for it, right after the `-c'
tooltype. Using the `-c' option you can even make python scripts which
reside in the icon only, without a scriptfile on disk. When starting a
Python program from the Workbench, any additional files which are
multi-selected will be passed as command line arguments.
SOURCE CODE and other files
---------------------------
For the original source code distribution, which also includes all library
files, a bunch of docs and many example programs, check
http://www.python.org. BTW, this site contains a lot more stuff:
reference manuals, contributed files, online documentation, FAQ's, news,
etc. etc.
For the Amiga source code, see Aminet in the same location as you found
this. It should be named `Python14_Src.lha'.