Error importing/installing PyQt

Question

I am having a ton of trouble with PyQt. I downloaded the binary installer, made sure it was the right version, (4.15.5, 64-bit) and thought I was done. Now, I have two problems, which totally stop me from using it with Python. First of all, when I enter 'from pyqt4 import qtcore' (or something along those lines, I'm not looking at the command right now) it returns 'ImportError: No module named "pyqt4"'. So I thought I might try making a form in designer and using pyuic to convert it. Nope. Apparently, 'pyuic is not a recognized command or file'. It seems like I did something wrong, but I've re-installed both Python and PyQt several times and spent hours searching the web. What is happening?

PS, there is no 'bin' folder, I looked at that question too...

PPS, I'm running Python 3.3.3 on a Windows 7 machine.

Answer 1

On Windows, Python packages are installed to Python's installation directory in Lib\site-packages (e.g. C:\Python33\Lib\site-packages\PyQt4). Scripts install to the "Scripts" directory (e.g. C:\Python33\Scripts). The installer should have also created a shortcut to Qt Designer in the Start menu.

Imports are case sensitive even on Windows:

from PyQt4 import QtCore

For the pyuic command, there's a batch file named pyuic4.bat in the package directory. Personally I'd skip on this¹. The actual script is PyQt4\uic\pyuic.py. I'd use a Windows shortcut², or use an NTFS symlink³ created with cmd's mklink or Python's os.symlink. You could also just copy the script, but that's a problem if the original gets updated.

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_{1. A batch file's Ctrl-C handler is an annoying prompt that's only relevant to actual batch processing.}

_{2. To use the shortcut like a normal command, just add the .LNK file extension to the PATHEXT environment variable. Here's the way to create a simple shortcut in Python (requires PyWin32):}

import win32com.client
ws = win32com.client.Dispatch('wscript.shell')
shortcut = ws.CreateShortcut('SHORTCUT_NAME.lnk')
shortcut.TargetPath = r'"PATH\TO\TARGET"'
shortcut.Save()

_{3. Creating symbolic links requires NT 6.0+ and SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege. Check whoami /priv to see whether your account has the privilege. Accounts in the Administrators group have the privilege, but require access token elevation if UAC is enabled. Regular users can be granted the privilege.}