[Zope] VideoCapture module fails under Zope on Win32

Tim tim@xxvii.net
Thu, 27 Feb 2003 14:29:56 -0500


I've been playing with the python VideoCapture webcam module
(http://videocapture.sourceforge.net/), and thought: wouldn't it be
nice to wrap this in a Zope product! Yes, yes it would, I agreed with
myself. Webcam controllable directly from Zope...

Unfortunately I quickly seem to have hit a hurdle I can not get over.
The VideoCapture module can not seem to open the device when running
under Zope. The code works perfectly fine, using Zope's python
version, when run from the command line outside of Zope... but inside
Zope the identical (cut/paste) code always fails.

The error message returned by the vidcap.pyd when trying to connect to
the camera device is generic, so I can't see what specifically the
problem is (if the windows error code is any more specific). I have
the source, of course, but I'm not a c++ person so have no compiler.
Anyhow it seems doubtful I'd be able to get around whatever the
problem is.

I'm just wondering if anyone might be able to enlighten me on possible
reasons for this behaviour. I think vaguely recall that Zope on Windows
runs at some sort of lowered privileges (but i could remember
incorrectly; I don't know how these sorts of things work on Win32).
Could this be the cause? How might one get around this, if so?

-- 
Tim Middleton | Cain Gang Ltd | I have lived through whole tragedies
x@veX.net     | www.Vex.Net   | without speaking a word. --Dost. (GC)