If you are using Python 2.2 or later, and have never installed Quixote with your current version of Python, you're in luck. Just run
python setup.py install
and you're done. Proceed to the demo documentation to learn how to get Quixote working.
If you're using an older Python, or if you're upgrading from an older Quixote version, read on.
We strongly recommend that you remove any old Quixote version before installing a new one. First, find out where your old Quixote installation is:
python -c "import os, quixote; print os.path.dirname(quixote.__file__)"
and then remove away the reported directory. (If the import fails, then you don't have an existing Quixote installation.)
Then proceed as above:
python setup.py install
If you are using Python 2.0 or 2.1 then you need to install the compiler package from the Python source distribution. The compiler package is for parsing Python source code and generating Python bytecode, and the PTL compiler is built on top of it. With Python 2.0 and 2.1, this package was included in Python's source distribution, but not installed as part of the standard library.
Assuming your Python source distribution is in /tmp/Python-2.1.2:
cd /tmp/Python-2.1.2/Tools/compiler python setup.py install
(Obviously, you'll have to adjust this to reflect your Python version and where you kept the source distribution after installing Python.)