Installing and using SkoolKit¶
Requirements¶
SkoolKit requires Python 3.8+. If you’re running Linux or one of the BSDs, you probably already have Python installed. If you’re running Windows, you can get Python here.
Installation¶
There are various ways to install the latest stable release of SkoolKit:
from the zip archive or tarball available at skoolkit.ca
from the zip archive or tarball available at GitHub
If you choose the zip archive or tarball, note that SkoolKit can be used wherever it is unpacked: it does not need to be installed in any particular location.
C extension modules¶
If you obtained SkoolKit from a zip archive or tarball, and you want to make use of the C extension modules (for faster Z80 simulation), then you will need to build them first. This requires a compiler, the setuptools package, and the development headers for the version of Python you’re using. Once these are ready, run the following command in the directory where SkoolKit was unpacked:
$ python setup.py build_ext -i
You may need to replace the python in this command with python3,
py, or the path to the Python executable, depending on the OS you’re using.
To see a list of the compilers that may be used to build the C extension modules, run the following command:
$ python setup.py build_ext --help-compiler
Linux/*BSD v. Windows command line¶
Throughout this documentation, commands that must be entered in a terminal
window (‘Command Prompt’ in Windows) are shown on a line beginning with a
dollar sign ($), like this:
$ some-script.py some arguments
On Windows, and on Linux/*BSD if SkoolKit has been installed as a Python
package (using ‘pip’), the commands may be entered exactly as they are shown.
On Linux/*BSD, use a dot-slash prefix (e.g. ./some-script.py) if the
script is being run from the current working directory.