Python in Windows Store apps

Question

The Windows Store app Python 3 For Metro claims that it allows users to edit and run Python files (I can't get it to work). How is this possible from within the sandbox? Can I run a file (say test.py on the desktop) from my JavaScript app?

Answer 1

How is this possible from within the sandbox?

I have ported the Python interpreter to WinRT to achieve that. Instead of using Win32 API, it now uses WinRT API (in particular for reading files from the user's Documents folder).

Can I run a file (say test.py on the desktop) from my JavaScript app?

In principle, yes. You need to take the python33.dll from my app, wrap it as a WinRT component, and then call it. It actually is a WinRT component already, but doesn't expose any of the Python API. See

http://hg.python.org/sandbox/loewis/file/ee9f8c546ddd/win8app/python33

Answer 2

Basically, what you need to do is write a C++ "shell" app according to the Metro rules, then host the Python interpreter inside that C++ app. And again, scrub the Python codebase so that it runs within the Metro sandbox.

You can then go a step further, and have the C++ shell expose WinRT libraries to the Python environment. There's probably a way to get Python to expose WinRT objects, but that would be a LOT of work.

You won't be able to call directly from JavaScript into Python - you'll need a WinRT component in the middle.

This is a lot of work, and requires some fairly low level work in C.