[wxPython-users] new style scrollbars on XP?

[Chris Reuter]

John Jackson wrote:
> Here's an example of  a manifest file that I use on windows xp:
> 
> MANIFEST_TEMPLATE = '''
[snip]
> '''
> 
> And then I use it when I build an executable using cx_Freeze:
> 
>     data = MANIFEST_TEMPLATE % dict(prog=constants.PROGRAM_NAME,  
> file_description=constants.PROGRAM_TITLE)
>     manifest = file(executableDistPath + ".manifest", 'w')
>     manifest.write(data)
>     manifest.close()

It turns out that you can also embed the manifest into the resources of 
a Windows executable.  Since I needed to use a custom base executable 
anyway, I did it this way.

I'm using MinGW and MSYS.

First, I made a dead simple .rc file:

	1 24 "myapp.exe.manifest"
	101 ICON myapp.ico

The second line adds an application icon, which I also needed.

I compiled it with windres, the resource compiler that comes with MinGW:

	windres Win32Resources.rc Win32Resources.o

Note, though, that windres isn't completely compatible with the 
Microsoft resource compiler.  This only worked because it was stupidly 
simple.

After that, I compiled my modified base executable, Win32GUI_quiet.exe:

	gcc -Wall -I. -I/c/Python24/include \
		-s /c/WINDOWS/system32/python24.dll -mwindows \
		-o Win32GUI_quiet.exe Win32GUI_quiet.c Win32Resources.o

Finally, I ran cx_Freeze with (among other things) the option 
"--base-binary `pwd`/Win32GUI_quiet.exe".

Ta-da!  One less file to distribute.

(As an aside, cx_Freeze is the greatest thing ever!  I mention this here 
because the last time I mentioned it, I wasn't particularly positive. 
Since then, I've evaluated it better and I'm really impressed with it.)


                             --Chris