Following on from the previous article about PyKaraoke development for the Windows platform, those of you who are modifying the source and contributing to the project may be interested in these instructions for building your own PyKaraoke installer executable. This allows you to distribute test builds of PyKaraoke which users can install without having to first install any of the underlying applications and libraries such as Python and Pygame.

• Install NSIS and Py2exe.
• Follow these instructions for setting up the build environment.
• Copy the following DLLs to folder “build/lib.win32-2.6/” in the top-level source folder (note that your originating folders may differ). In future this step will be automated within the installer script:
  • c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\pygame\SDL.dll
  • c:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_…\msvc*90.dll
• Compile PyKaraoke’s C-based optimised CDG interpreter from a command prompt:
  • python setup.py build_ext –sdl-location=C:\proj\SDL
• Finally build the installer executable (use option –makensis if you installed NSIS to a non-standard location):
  • python setup.py nsis

Your final executable installer will now be sitting in the top level source folder with the filename pykaraoke-ver.exe.