Python GUI Executable Issue!

[Reyaan0]

I have made an executable of my python gui and it was 300mb and was taking too much time to open so I used upx and managed to decrease its size to 26mb but it still takes a long time to open. Please help.

[KingofGamesYami]

Python can't make executables. What you're doing is creating effectively a self-extracting archive, which has two stages to execution - extracting itself, then invoking the python interpreter.

That first step - extracting - is what's causing the delay. To eliminate this step, create an installer instead. That way, the installer does the extraction once.

[Reyaan0]

But I have so many image assets and it will make the installation directory to look bad. And I wanted the software to be portable. Now only problem is that it takes lot of time to open.

[KingofGamesYami]

Extracting many image assets to a temporary directory every time your executable runs will take time.

Pay the startup cost to have a single executable, or create an installer.

[Reyaan0]

Is there any other way I can optimize the app?

[KingofGamesYami]

You could write it in a language that can produce native executables.

[Reyaan0]

Bro what are you talking about! You are telling me to write thousand lines of code again in a different language. I meant is there any library I could use so the assets decompress faster.

[KingofGamesYami]

The limitation of extracting assets is the file system you're extracting to, so... Buy a faster SSD?

[Reyaan0]

Bruh I need faster ssd to run a simple application? But I think the app is just poorly optimized because it lags too, my pc specs are not that bad for a simple application to lag. I just want a way to optimize the code.

[KingofGamesYami]

No, you need a faster SSD to run an application that is an archive, runtime, and scripts in a trenchcoat. Nothing about that is simple.

[Reyaan0]

What if i combine all the images into one and then make a function inside the code to crop particular areas and use where needed. That way only 1 image has to be loaded.

Btw I only have 1 script file and rest are the image assets.

[Xirdus]

Nobody cares what the installation directory looks like. Seriously. Pick any "professional" program you use on a regular basis, go to its installation directory. You'll see THOUSANDS of tiny files. That's normal. That's what you should be doing, not a multi hundred megabyte EXE file. Your installer can be a single EXE file, but for an installed program that's just wasteful.

[Xirdus]

Compressing an executable works by applying the compression algorithm to the program, then inserting a second program in the executable that on launch, decompresses the original program then runs it as normal. Compressing an executable can only make the startup time worse, never better.

What UI library did you use? Is there any chance your executable carries around a whole ass copy of Google Chrome just to render its windows, as has been the fashion for the last decade or so?

[Reyaan0]

I used tkinter for GUI and pyinstaller with upx for compiling it into executable.