Thanks Dan<br><br>Fink? Which one is that?<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 7:30 PM, Daniel O'Donovan <span dir="ltr"><span><dan.odonovan@<a href="http://gmail.com">gmail.com</a>></span></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Hi Tony,<br>
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> 1. Why are there so many "variations" of the Python installer for the Mac?<br>
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</div>I think you'll find that the biggest difference between MacPorts python (and fink python) and most other builds (<a href="http://python.org" target="_blank">python.org</a> for example), is that MacPorts uses X11 rather than Aqua (Apple's native window manager) and are not built as Apple 'Frameworks' - but rather regular shared libraries (more like with linux).<br>
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Using fink and MacPorts help integration with many linux type apps (particularly helpful for scientific programming) whilst the native, Framework builds are better for native looking Macintosh apps - and the Apple bundled python is obviously native.<br>
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This is a simple summary, and there are 101 more differences between all the builds - but I think the first decision you'll want to make is whether to go the Linux route, or go 'native' ;-)<br>
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hth,<br>
<br>
Dan<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Daniel O'Donovan<br>
<a href="mailto:dan.odonovan@gmail.com">dan.odonovan@gmail.com</a><br>
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