How to use gfx module in python

Question

I'm trying to use the gfx module for python (from here: http://www.swftools.org/gfx_tutorial.html). But when I do python setup.py build I get an error:

ImportError: cannot import name CompileError

I just need to open a gfx file.. (Its part of the pythonchallenge.com) How can I do it?

I'm working on linux mint 64bit

It runs, but I get the 'cannot import name CompileError' error — Javi, Jun 06 '14 at 13:36
@JaviDorfsman do `python2 -m trace --trace setup.py build > debug.log` and give us the last hundred or so lines of **debug.log**, paste it in https://gist.github.com/ or something similar. — Torxed, Jun 06 '14 at 13:37
Did this end up working for you? I'm struggling through this same setup process. — Zhouster, Jul 20 '15 at 22:22
Hmmm, did you find a work around in terms of opening the .gfx file? — Zhouster, Jul 20 '15 at 22:35
Without giving too much away: That `gfx` module has _nothing_ to do with that pythonchallenge and is _not_ required for solving it. — tobias_k, Aug 22 '20 at 20:41
@tobias_k Thanks! The "setup.py" file at their repository is even outdated( "print" is still a statement) — 101is5, Mar 19 '22 at 22:16

Padraic Cunningham · Answer 1 · 2014-06-06T17:15:56.707

3

enter code here Not sure how stable this is but there seems to be a lot of issues installing 0.9.2 on ubuntu:

wget http://www.swftools.org/swftools-2013-04-09-1007.tar.gz
tar -xzvf swftools-2013-04-09-1007.tar.gz 
cd swftools-2013-04-09-1007/
./configure
make
sudo make install
sudo cp lib/python/*.so /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

That should compile and install on ubuntu. Then python -c 'import gfx' should work.

I had a look at the setup.py script and it seems it is using CompileError from distutils which is now depreciated, I replaced it with from distutils.core import CCompilerError

Running python setup.py runs after changing but complains about various errors in relation to jpeg and PIL._imaging.so so I have included an instuctions.txt in the file which has instructions on how to setup the required packages and symlinks etc...

I also had to add the lib/art directory from swftools on github and add it to the lib directory.

It runs and installs on ubuntu 14.04 but should work on mint also.

The updated package is here

edited Jun 06 '14 at 17:15

answered Jun 06 '14 at 13:48

Padraic Cunningham

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I'm getting this error: 'cp: cannot stat ‘lib/python/*.so’: No such file or directory' and there are really no .so files in that folder – Javi Jun 06 '14 at 13:53
have you compiled as above with no errors? It is working for me on ubuntu. The examples are working also. You are also putting the lines in one by one yes? – Padraic Cunningham Jun 06 '14 at 14:03
what do you get after `sudo make install` – Padraic Cunningham Jun 06 '14 at 14:10
when you cd into `lib/python` there is no `gfx.so`? – Padraic Cunningham Jun 06 '14 at 14:24
No, there is just gfx.c – Javi Jun 06 '14 at 14:25
my output is identical and it creates the.so – Padraic Cunningham Jun 06 '14 at 14:39
Well.. mine doesn't.. Is it unique? could you maybe send it to me? – Javi Jun 06 '14 at 14:43
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/55206/discussion-between-padraic-cunningham-and-javi-dorfsman). – Padraic Cunningham Jun 06 '14 at 14:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '17 at 08:18

download

http://www.swftools.org/download.html

You can build the Python module using setup.py
You can build it "manually" by using make To do the former, all that should be required is

python setup.py build
python setup.py install

This is the preferred way. If the above gives you any trouble or you prefer make, the following will also create the Python module:

./configure
make
# substitute the following path with your correct python 
installation:
cp lib/python/*.so /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/

You can test whether the python module was properly installed by doing

python -c 'import gfx'

How to use gfx module in python

2 Answers2