[Pythonmac-SIG] pythonw question

[Jack Jansen]

On 25 Jun 2004, at 20:04, gohaku wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> I am currently using python v2.2 ( /usr/bin/python )
> I also have python v2.3 ( /usr/bin/pythonw )

Are you sure this is indeed the case? Because normally you would have 
one of two situations:
- If you're running 10.2 (Panther) you'd have only /usr/bin/python, 
which would be 2.2
- If you're running 10.3 (Jaguar) you'd have both /usr/bin/python and 
/usr/bin/pythonw, and they would both be 2.3.

If you indeed have the situation you sketch you've installed something 
into /usr/bin yourself, which is probably not a good idea.

> Other than running wxPython apps with pythonw, I would like to know
> what the difference between python and pythonw is and
> if I overwrite /usr/bin/python with /usr/bin/python, will I experience 
> any problems?

The difference is that "python" cannot access the GUI, and "pythonw" 
can. There is a very small performance disadvantage to using "pythonw" 
(it's a shellscript that runs the "real" windowing interpreter), but 
only during startup. I can't think of any real problems that could be 
caused by always using pythonw, but I think you should really fix the 
real problem (that the two seem to refer to different Python versions).
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman