[osgeo4w-dev] Python GIS programming environment under Windows

[Matt Wilkie]

Thank you for the kind words Gilles.

It's so easy to focus on the immediate problem and de-emphasize, by 
omission, the gifts that enabled us to have the issue in the first place 
(something I'm frequently quilty of. So it's good to be reminded :)

> This application has failed to start because MSVCR71.dll was not found.

This should be installed as part of the msvcrt package in 
%osgeo4w_root%\bin. Msvcrt package is a root package and should always 
be there no matter what options are selected on install. You likely need 
to set the environment with OSGeo4W.bat before calling pythonwin (or use 
that batch file as a template for permanently setting the system variables).


 > I'm thinking of installing Python/IDLE separately but I'm not sure it
 > will be able to find/use packages from the osgeo4w stack.

 From http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/ticket/114 there's a python script 
to (de)register a python directory tree in the windows registry. It 
doesn't work on 64 bit systems (patches welcome). After using 
register-python.py you should be able to use the standard windows 
installers for any python application not included in Osgeo4w.

In my view this is a better route forward than packaging yet another 
not-really-gis program into the osgeo4w mirror system. We already have 
enough difficulty keeping the core packages up to date. :)

cheers,

matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geomatics Analyst
Information Management and Technology
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
http://environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/geomatics/
--------------------------------------------

On 15/12/2010 2:17 AM, Gilles Bassière wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to this list and before anything else I would like to thank the
> people behind OSGeo4W for their work. I believe it makes OSGeo projects
> much more accessible to common GIS users.
>
> For the purpose of a GIS programming lab, I'm trying to get up and
> running the following: Python, a Python IDE and several libraries
> (primarily GDAL/OGR and Mapnik but also Geopy).
>
> Regarding the IDE, I don't have specific requirements, I merely want to
> avoid using cmd.exe because this might frighten my students :) IDLE
> would be fine for example but I can't find it in the OSGeo4W components.
>
> I see that Pythonwin is present but I get this error when I launch it:
> This application has failed to start because MSVCR71.dll was not found.
> I did try to re-install python-win32 but it doesn't help (my test
> platform is Windows XP within a VirtualBox).
>
> I'm thinking of installing Python/IDLE separately but I'm not sure it
> will be able to find/use packages from the osgeo4w stack.
>
> I'm looking for advices about the easiest way to get a Python GIS
> programming environment under Windows.
>
> Best regards