Re: [pygame] Python 3.0 and Pygame Reloaded questions

[mva@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Daniel McNeese <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> I'm working on a project in Game Maker, but it fails to meet my   
> needs in one critical way: Game Maker only supports 2   
> joysticks/gamepads.  I need more than that.  So I'm taking a second   
> look at Python, this time at 3.0 and the new version of Pygame.  I   
> have some questions:
>
> 1) When last I looked at Python, it was dependent on msvcrt71.dll -   
> a Microsoft dll - and the legality of Python users distributing it   
> in their programs was in question.  Has that issue been resolved?    
> Does Python 3.0 still use that dll?

No, it uses the newer version, as far as I know, which seems to have
become a standard component for Windows[0]. So you might not need to
redistribute it yourself. pgreloaded contains a small py2exe example
script, which you can try out, remove any msvcrt dlls and see if the
exe still works for you.

> 2) Does Pygame Reloaded have a limit on how many joysticks/gamepads   
> it can support?  If so, how many can it use?  I need a bare minimum   
> of 4, and 8 would be preferred.

Yes. Currently it's fixed to 32 joysticks to keep the memory manangement
simple. It can be changed at any time to support (nearly) any amount  
of joysticks, if necessary, and will then just be limited by the SDL.

> 3) How close is Pygame Reloaded to being ready for use?  The last   
> answer I found via Google was from half a year ago.

Large parts should be stable, but are untested in several areas. It is
already used for some small projects (not publicly available), which
perform mostly simple tasks, though.
I do not expect many critical issues to arise from the core parts such
as the sdl system, and most bugs, which may come up, should be able to
be fixed in a very short time as they will be unlikely to affect the
overall package.

There's a file handling problem still to be resolved with file objects
(not file names) for Python 3.x (e.g. image loading from an open file),
but I hope to have it fixed soon in some way.

[0] http://osdir.com/ml/python.py2exe/2007-03/msg00007.html

Regards
Marcus