Deploying application with Python or another embedded scripting language

Question

I'm thinking about using Python as an embedded scripting language in a hobby project written in C++. I would not like to depend on separately installed Python distribution. Python documentation seems to be quite clear about general usage, but I couldn't find a clear answer to this.

Is it feasible to deploy a Python interpreter + standard library with my application? Would some other language like Lua, Javascript (Spidermonkey), Ruby, etc. be better for this use?

Here's the criteria I'm weighing the different languages against:

• No/Few dependencies on externally installed packages
• Standard library with good feature set
• Nice language :)
• Doesn't result in a huge install package

edit:

I guess the question should be: How do I deploy my own python library + standard library with the installer of my program, so that it doesn't matter whether the platform already has python installed or not?

edit2:

One more clarification. I don't need info about specifics of linking C and Python code.

Answer 1

Link your application to the python library (pythonXX.lib on Windows) and add the following to your main() function.

Py_NoSiteFlag = 1;  // Disable importing site.py
Py_Initialize();    // Create a python interpreter

Put the python standard library bits you need into a zip file (called pythonXX.zip) and place this and pythonXX.dll beside the executable you distribute. Have a look at PyZipFile in the the zipfile module.