Ramblings

December 17, 2009

Some notes on python and com using comtypes

Filed under: com, python — michaelangela @ 2:25 pm

CodeProject: Working with custom COM interfaces from Python. Free source code and programming help

There are a lot of tutorials on Python and COM over the Internet, but in real practice, you might quickly be confused just going beyond standard IDispatch things. The same occurred to me when I decided to write unit tests for our set of COM components. The components are rather simple, they implement one custom interface (derived from IUnknown) and one outgoing IDispatch interface for events.

First, I tried to use the standard pythoncom module, but it turned out that it didn’t support custom COM interfaces. Then, I downloaded the comtypes package and started playing with it. Due to a lack of documentation, it took me about one night to write a simple example. So, here is a step-by-step guide on how to begin using comtypes.

up next…

Python Order2Go Example – DailyFX Forum

For all Python programmers out there that like to play a little with Order2Go:
(On Windows Platforms only)

These are of interest specifically because they deal with getting events from the COM objects and handling them.

Doh! No more testing IE on a Mac now?!?!

Filed under: ie, parallels, virtualization — michaelangela @ 2:21 pm

So I have Parallels 5, and I was about to do some tests but hadn’t gotten things up and running on this box before so I went, did the 500_MB download (XP SP3 not Vista!), loaded everything up, and then “eh? activation?”

IE VPC Images now with WGA :: Crisis Averted!

Just when I was on a virtualization roll using VirtualBox for testing IE on my Mac, Microsoft stopped me dead in my tracks. The latest version of Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images now have the anti-piracy features of Windows Genuine Advantage enabled.

The hardware signature detected when a VPC image first boots in a non-VPC host is different from the signature present when the image was first created, presumably in VPC. This difference triggers WGA’s re-activation requirement to make sure you’re not a dirty pirate. Of course you’re not a dirty pirate, but if you wish to re-activate Windows you’re going to need the original Windows Product Key which isn’t provided with the VPC images. Microsoft has effectively blocked end users from hosting the VPC images with anything but Virtual PC.

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