Python Programming On Win32

Chapter 3. Python on Windows

This chapter introduces using Python on Windows. Rather than describe how to use Python on Windows, we discuss the architecture and briefly cover some of the extension modules available.

When you install the Python binaries for Windows, you install a fully functional version of Python that runs under Windows. This version of Python is similar to what you would find on any installation of Python, regardless of the platform, and we begin by briefly discussing how to take full advantage of the standard Python on Windows.

Although this standard version of Python is fully functional, you don’t obtain much Windows-specific functionality. To fill the gap, there is a standard set of extensions for Python known collectively as the Python for Windows extensions. These extensions provide access to many Windows-specific features, such as a GUI and IDE environment, Microsoft’s COM, the raw Win32 API, Windows NT-specific features, and so forth. We assume you have already installed the Python for Windows extensions, so these extensions are covered in detail. As discussed in Chapter 1, you can find the latest official version of these extensions at http://www.python.org/windows (look for the Windows 95/NT-specific extensions entry).

To complete the picture, we also discuss some other extension modules available for Python on Windows. Many of these are not Windows-specific, but do support Windows, so they are worthy of discussion. Extensions falling into this category ...