[vtkusers] vtk, python20, TkRenderWidget, Win2000

[David Gobbi]

On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:

>     David> The VTK nightly builds work with Python 1.5.2 and Python
>     David> 2.0 under UNIX and Linux, and with Tcl/Tk 8.0 through 8.3
>     David> (probably 8.4 as well, but I've never tried).
> 
> Umm.  But I thought that Python2.0 is not binary compatible with
> Python1.5.x?  So doesnt it matter as to which version of Python is
> used to build VTK? 

Well, you have to pick one!  But either one will work.  That is, as
long as you are building VTK from source.
 
> The other thing is - why do people have trouble with VTK on RedHat
> 7.0?  Does it have anything to do with the Tcl/Tk version or is it
> something else?

It has to do with the gcc-2.96 that is shipped with RedHat 7.0.
The most recent stable version of gcc is 2.95.  In order to build
VTK under Redhat 7.0, you have to go to the RedHat errata page
and download their latest gcc patches.  I still run RedHat 6.2,
and probably won't upgrade until RedHat 7.2 is available.

>     David> Yes, this is ugly.  Also note that unless your tcl/tk
>     David> version matches the version of tcl/tk that python was built
>     David> against, the RenderWidgets will almost certainly not work
>     David> under python.
> 
> Okay - in which case cant a simple note be made on the site (or
> atleast somewhere else) saying something like

Personally I don't like the idea of putting the information on the
web site, because web sites (including Kitware's) have a notorious
reputation for becoming out-of-date.  I think that the appropriate
location for this information is in README files in VTK, where 
developers can modify them via CVS.

> I must have missed something but this is what I understand:
> 
>    (1) The current vtk nightly binaries for Windows will work properly
>    if the user has
> 
>        (a) Either Python 1.5.2 or above (i.e. it will also work for
>        Python 2.0)

Nope, just Python 1.5.2 -- you must recompile to use Python 2.0.
Ideally, there should be a separate installer that would support 
Python 2.0, but we would need commitment from someone at Kitware
to build it and put it on the web site.
 
>    (2) The nightly RPMs will work with
> 
>       (a) Python >= 1.5.2 (including 2.0).

Again, you must recompile to have them work with anything other than
Python-1.5.2/Tk-8.0 (which is fine for now, because this is what
RedHat-6.0 through RedHat-7.0 use -- but one RedHat-7.1 is out
(with Tk-8.3) we're back into version hell).

 - David