Brendan Kidwell Stepping Down as Zim Windows Package Maintainer

To: "zim-wiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <zim-wiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Brendan Kidwell" <snarf@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2019 00:55:37 -0400

Hi all,

I had another go at updating my Windows package building workflow, for Zim 0.70+ using Python 3 and GTK 3. It does not go well.

The only good way I could come up with to install GTK 3 for Python 3 in Windows is using the MSYS2 system, and this much does work -- see below! Unfortunately, moving forward from there I could not get any of the installer builder systems for Python to work.

These installer builder tools do the hard work of putting your source code into some kind of bundle and copying the Python interpreter and all the libraries and resource files you depend on into your build folder. I got the furthest with Pyinstaller, but it does not work. Pyinstaller created a 'dist' folder corrupted filenames/paths for "_struct_python-37m" and "zlib-cpython-37m". I copies those in from the installed files in MSYS2, but then when I ran the result, Python says it can't find 'math'. That sounds bad.

Issue 4125 on pyinstaller has been open for a few months about this. https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/issues/4125

I have decided that personally I do not have the time and energy to deal with this anymore. Building a Windows VM to work in is a pain, and my personal netbook can't possibly even do this job so I have to use something else when I'm working on the Windows installer for Zim.

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So I am officially no longer the maintainer of the Windows installer for Zim. Going forward, please use my manual install instructions reference below, or use the installer for Zim 0.69, which still works fine and its payload is relatively bug-free.

I will keep my Zim web site about the IRC chat room and about the old Windows installer online indefinitely.

I am eager to help anyone else take over the role of building a new installer for Zim on Windows. I can explain the work I did on the old GTK 2-compatiable installer, and I'm happy to host any builds the new maintainer can get working, if they do not host it themselves.

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I spent a couple of hours documenting how to install Zim manaully, from source, on Windows 7 or later, using the MSYS2 software catalog and package manager. *Unfortuantely, you will need 1GB of space to do it!* If this doesn't sound like a good idea for you or if the howto below is too complicated, please continue using Zim 0.69 for Windows found on my web site at https://zim.glump.net/windows/ .

Here are my instructions for installing Zim 0.70 or later under MSYS2:
https://github.com/jaap-karssenberg/zim-wiki/wiki/Install-Zim-0.70-or-Later-in-Windows