Using Python on a Mac page out of date and erroneous
Hi
I’m sorry I don’t yet know what a sensible replacement description would be or I would suggest a fix, but the page on Python on a Mac is badly out of date:
3.10.5 Documentation » Python Setup and Usage » Using Python on a Mac
It wrongly states that Python is pre-installed on MacOS (it’s not now), and thinks the Intel-based Macs are “new”, and that universal binaries are for Intel and Power PC, rather than Apple Silicon and Intel.
I was hoping to set up a set of virtual environments for development on a Mac, with PC-style selectable interpreters, but the package installer from Python.org will not allow a location to be selected for installation, implying that only one instance of the interpreter is allowed, which seems a very backward step.
Best regards
––– Prof. Mark Woodman, PhD Director, IT Changes Ltd. | Co-founder Digital Acumen linkedin.com/in/mark-woodman
Hey Mark,
Ouch yea, I agree a lot of stuff in there is pretty outdated.
For your goal, from what I hear a lot of people use `brew` to install Python on macOS and I believe it supports multiple versions. You could also take a look at `pyenv` to manage local Python installations (unsure on how good that is on macOS).
Regards,
Simon
On Fri, Jun 17, 2022, at 8:05 PM, Mark Woodman wrote:
Hi
I’m sorry I don’t yet know what a sensible replacement description would be or I would suggest a fix, but the page on Python on a Mac is badly out of date:
- 3.10.5 Documentation https://docs.python.org/3/index.html »
- Python Setup and Usage https://docs.python.org/3/using/index.html »
Using Python on a Mac It wrongly states that Python is pre-installed on MacOS (it’s not now), and thinks the Intel-based Macs are “new”, and that universal binaries are for Intel and Power PC, rather than Apple Silicon and Intel.
I was hoping to set up a set of virtual environments for development on a Mac, with PC-style selectable interpreters, but the package installer from Python.org http://python.org/ will not allow a location to be selected for installation, implying that only one instance of the interpreter is allowed, which seems a very backward step.
Best regards
––– *Prof. Mark Woodman, PhD* Director, IT Changes Ltd. | Co-founder Digital Acumen https://digitalacumen.tech/ linkedin.com/in/mark-woodman _______________________________________________ docs mailing list -- docs@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to docs-leave@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/docs.python.org/ Member address: cmdr@supakeen.com
Ouch. I've filed https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/93987 for this.
I'll strongly suggest *not* using Homebrew's Python though (see reasons in [1], along with an additional recommendation). I'll second the recommendation to use pyenv. :)
[1] https://justinmayer.com/posts/homebrew-python-is-not-for-you/
Best, Pradyun
On Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 7:15 AM Mark Woodman m.woodman@itchanges.com wrote:
Hi
I’m sorry I don’t yet know what a sensible replacement description would be or I would suggest a fix, but the page on Python on a Mac is badly out of date:
- 3.10.5 Documentation https://docs.python.org/3/index.html »
- Python Setup and Usage https://docs.python.org/3/using/index.html » Using
Python on a Mac
It wrongly states that Python is pre-installed on MacOS (it’s not now), and thinks the Intel-based Macs are “new”, and that universal binaries are for Intel and Power PC, rather than Apple Silicon and Intel.
I was hoping to set up a set of virtual environments for development on a Mac, with PC-style selectable interpreters, but the package installer from Python.org will not allow a location to be selected for installation, implying that only one instance of the interpreter is allowed, which seems a very backward step.
Best regards
––– *Prof. Mark Woodman, PhD* Director, IT Changes Ltd. | Co-founder Digital Acumen https://digitalacumen.tech/ linkedin.com/in/mark-woodman _______________________________________________ docs mailing list -- docs@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to docs-leave@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/docs.python.org/ Member address: pradyunsg@gmail.com
participants (3)
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Mark Woodman -
Pradyun Gedam -
Simon de Vlieger