[Metakit] ongoing problem

[Tom Cloyd]

I recently had to reinstall metakit due to reinstalling python.

My first install of metakit was a few months ago. At that time, I found  
the web site - http://www.equi4.com/metakit.html - cryptic in the extreme  
relative to HOW to install this thing on Windows. I tried to guess my way  
through it, and got nowhere.

I emailed Jean-Claude, who was very helpful:

"Download these files:
     http://www.equi4.com/pub/mk/metakit.py
     http://www.equi4.com/pub/mk/mk-2.4.9.4-windows/Mk4py.dll

Leave them both in the current directory and launch python."

Well, it's not exactly clear to what the "current directory" means in this  
context. I take it possibly means the current path, unless I'm supposed to  
haul this around from project folder to project folder, as if it were one  
of my own modules. As I write this, I'm guessing that this is really what  
I'm supposed to do. The documentation comment in metakit.py leads me to  
believe that just putting these two modules in the Python package root  
will suffice. It's be really nice to have at the web site a plain  
statement like that.

So...at the time of my first feeble attempts to install, there was nothing  
at the web site nearly as clear and straightforward as Jean-Claude's  
statement.

THERE STILL ISN'T, as I just found out. If I hadn't kept the original  
email, I've have to write another one.

Please...we're not all linux whizes, or comp. sci. majors or whatever. A  
little plain talk does wonders. Why not fix the web site?

___Now I'm going to approach the web site as a naive newbie, to illustrate  
the problem I had originally, and did again tonight, before locating  
Jean-Claude's email:

The download directory at http://www.equi4.com/pub/mk/ lists files, and  
one is plainly for windows: "mk-2.4.9.4-windows/". Clicking that takes me  
to this lonely listing:

         229376b  2005-06-10  Mk4py.dll
         192512b  2005-06-10  Mk4tcl.dll
          56265b  2005-06-10  mk4vc60.dll.gz
          14859b  2005-06-10  mk4vc60.lib.gz

Not helpful. What do I do with this? Why not tell me? It was at this point  
last time that I started doing a number of wrong things, and not getting  
any real results.

Somewhere, there's a link to an "Installation" page at  
"http://www.equi4.com/metakit/python.html#inst", which leads you rather  
indirectly back to the download directory listed above, and provides the  
following instructions:

2. On Unix, rename the appropriate compiled extension to "Mk4py.so" (on  
Win/Mac, use the corresponding file)

Comment: WHAT? As a Windows-only person, I got quite lost at this point.

3. Place the Mk4py extension as well as the "metakit.py" wrapper somewhere  
on Python's module search path, such as in the site-packages directory (or  
just leave it in ".")

Comment: I suppost I must download the two compressed file in the download  
directory and go looking for metakit.py. Why not tell me IF I need both  
compressed files, and where metakit.py is? And what about those *.dll  
files? One looks like it might have something to do with TCL, about which  
which I essentially nothing, so I could be wrong. I'm way too much on my  
own at this point, I think.

4. Do a small test, by running "demo.py". If all is well, you should get  
some self-explanatory output.

Comment: This is fine, and reassuring, once you have the installation in  
place, which I cannot achieve with what's at the web site. Too much  
linking through multiple pages which don't help, couple with outright  
mystery.

Tonight, I do have the right instructions fortunately, so I'm sure my  
install will as straightforward as it was last time. But, I offer the  
above notes on my difficulty in the hope that it may help made adoption of  
metakit easier for the next non-professional who comes along.

Hope it helps!

-- t.

======================================================
Tom Cloyd
Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A: (360) 920-1226
<< BestMindHealth.com / tc at bestmindhealth.com >>
======================================================

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