Windows Install

[CircuitsMan]

I'm used to just executing one install file to install a program, but
installing everything Sympy and Symbide needs or can use requires 11
different install files: Sympy, Symbide, Python, GTK+, PyGTK,
GtkSourceView, 4suite, Numpy, Scipy, PIL, and Gnuplot.py.

I'm also interested in downloading Sage which requires VMWare and I
already installed Netbeans and Cygwin.

I've read that Sage has Sympy included, Cygwin has GTK+, and even
though Cygwin has Gnuplot, Symbide needs Gnuplot.py? Did I get all
that right?

Is there an easier way, or maybe something that spells everything out
for me so I don't install something wrong or install something I
already have? How about an Installation Guide for Windows Dummies?

I've also never installed a tarball before, and GtkSourceView is only
available as a tarball, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

- CircuitsMan

[Ivan Iakoupov]

CircuitsMan wrote:
> I'm used to just executing one install file to install a program, but
> installing everything Sympy and Symbide needs or can use requires 11
> different install files: Sympy, Symbide, Python, GTK+, PyGTK,
> GtkSourceView, 4suite, Numpy, Scipy, PIL, and Gnuplot.py.
>

+ eventually matplotlib.

> I'm also interested in downloading Sage which requires VMWare and I
> already installed Netbeans and Cygwin.
>
> I've read that Sage has Sympy included, Cygwin has GTK+, and even
> though Cygwin has Gnuplot, Symbide needs Gnuplot.py? Did I get all
> that right?
>
> Is there an easier way, or maybe something that spells everything out
> for me so I don't install something wrong or install something I
> already have? How about an Installation Guide for Windows Dummies?
>
>

Well, based on how I installed Symbide not so long ago here is a brief
HOWTO.
1. Install Python (http://python.org/download/)
2. Install GTK+ runtime
(http://gladewin32.sourceforge.net/modules/wfdownloads/viewcat.php?cid=14).
Here's also an issue with versions. PyGTK binaries seem not be built
the latest GTK+ runtime. For example currently binaries for GTK+ runtime
is at version 2.10.11-1 while binaries for the newest PyGTK is only at
2.10.6-1. So I've installed GTK+ runtime version which matched that of
the PyGTK. (However I have no idea what will happen if the versions of
those two would be different - maybe there wouldn't be a problem)
<http://gladewin32.sourceforge.net/modules/wfdownloads/visit.php?cid=14&lid=110>
3. Install PyGTK & Co.
If you look at:
http://www.pygtk.org/downloads.html
you'll see that there're whole 3 packages (PyCairo, PyGObject and
PyGTK). I have installed them all, but don't actually know whether one
needs all of them (I'm only unsure about PyCairo as the other two are a
must I recon).
4. At this stage you should be able to install and run Symbide and use
it for entering pure python code in its nice workbook form. However I'd
recommend you to install at least sympy as Symbide has good integration
with it.
5. If you want to install some plotting software packages, you'd also
need PIL.
(Hope I haven't forgot anything.)

As you can see it's indeed quite tedious process to install Symbide on
Windows right now. All those steps could possibly be automated with some
smart installer but then someone has to write it. As I understand that
it isn't a top priority for the lead developer at the moment as he uses
Linux.

Also generally if you are on Windows, you'll end up installing a lot of
copies of the libs. For example I probably have at least 4 different
versions of GTK installed: for pidgin, for gimp, for inkscape and now
for Symbide. I don't know whether I could reuse the one for the GIMP as
that one get installed with a separate installer... But that is whole
other discussion of course.

> I've also never installed a tarball before, and GtkSourceView is only
> available as a tarball, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
>

I don't even know whether one can install gtksourceview on Windows (as
in existance of prebuilt binaries), haven't tried that yet. Symbide
should be able to work without it though. But a tarball usually implies
that it's just a source code archive which needs to be compiled first
and I remember that setting up GNU(or any other sort of) toolchain
(compiler, linker, etc.) for Windows was a huge pain in the neck last
time I tried. However if you have Cygwin installed you may already have
one but again I cannot help you there as I know nothing about Cygwin
besides it being a way to run native Linux apps on windows by
recompiling them from source (or something like that).

[basti]

> I'm used to just executing one install file to install a program, but
> installing everything Sympy and Symbide needs or can use requires 11
> different install files: Sympy, Symbide, Python, GTK+, PyGTK,
> GtkSourceView, 4suite, Numpy, Scipy, PIL, and Gnuplot.py.

It's not necessary to install all these packages. You only need
Python, Symbide, gtk and pygtk.
All other things are optional.
I agree that it would be nice to have a "all in one" installer, but
since I assume someone who wants to use numpy, scipy or gnuplot very
likely has these already installed, I won't add them to the installer.
4suite is a really big package and it would blow up the installer
unnecessarily. Also I plan to remove dependency on this in the future.
Gtksourceview seems to be not available as binaries for windows in the
web (I didn't search too long), what is really a pity. I'll maybe try
to get rid of it, but since it has many features Symbide uses, I would
have to implement them on my own. Not really difficult, but a lot of
work.

> I'm also interested in downloading Sage which requires VMWare and I
> already installed Netbeans and Cygwin.
>
> I've read that Sage has Sympy included

That's good enough. You will just have to add the source folder to
pythonpath. (maybe this is done automatically, but I guess not)

>Cygwin has GTK+, and even
> though Cygwin has Gnuplot, Symbide needs Gnuplot.py? Did I get all
> that right?

I've never used Cygwin and have not really an idea what it is capable
of, but it should be possible to use this gtk version.

Gnuplot.py is a package that enables to use Gnuplot out of python with
a python interface. So yes, you have to install Gnuplot.py if you'd
like to use Gnuplot.

> Is there an easier way, or maybe something that spells everything out
> for me so I don't install something wrong or install something I
> already have? How about an Installation Guide for Windows Dummies?

In the moment there is only the installation guide on
http://symbide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/website/html/documentation.html#id2488974.
Have you overseen it, or do you find it unclear? Please suggest
improvements if you do so.

> I've also never installed a tarball before, and GtkSourceView is only
> available as a tarball, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

As Ivan pointed out it won't be too easy to install it, and now where
i'm thinking of it you will also need a extension for pygtk. I'm sorry
but it seems that you can't use gtksourceview easily. I'll investigate
on that (or reimplement it in python).

basti