[Image-SIG] PIL builds for Mac OS X

[Christopher Barker]

Fredrik,

Thanks for bringing this up -- the plethora of options for Python stuff 
on OS-X is a constant nightmare for new users. I'm still confused as to 
why it's so much harder for new users than Windows, but I guess it's 
because OS-X provides almost easy-enough ways to get unix-y libs, etc, 
whereas building your own is out of the question for many (most?) 
Windows users.

However, the many options of fink, macports, plain old build from 
tarball, assorted library Frameworks, PPC, Intel, etc. really creates a 
support nightmare for developers of open-source packages.

This has been discussed a lot on the python-mac lists, and I think a 
more or less consensus was reached for supporting easy installers for 
newbies:

1) Use the "MacPython Universal Framework" build available from 
python.org and pythonmac.org/packages

2) Packages or binary eggs should be made available for that Python that 
are statically linked against any non-apple supplied libs (libpng, 
etc.). That's what's up at pythonmac.org/packages.

However, this has been complicated by three things:

1) pythonmac.org/packages isn't being as well maintained as it once was. 
In fact, you can't even find a link to it from pythonmac.org, as that 
now re-directs to http://wiki.python.org. I think this is because Bob 
Ippolito is busy with other things, and that was primarily his baby.

2) Apple is now shipping a good-enough python. They've shipped python 
for years, but it was always out of date, slightly broken, and they 
never updated it. With 10.5, they have a mostly fully functional up to 
date Python, so people are using that now. That means that people can do 
something different on 10.5 than older versions. There is a way to 
install a single package that will work with either MacPython2.5 or 
Apple's Python2.5, but it requires at least some symlink magic, and 
there are odd issues with overriding (or not) the version of a package 
that Apple has provided.

3) More and more package developers are providing binary *.dmgs or eggs 
themselves, rather than relying on pythonmac.org/packages -- this is 
generally a good thing, but it does mean that there is less need for the 
repository, so it sees less maintenance.

Anyway, here is my suggestion for PIL:

First Choice:

Provide a binary download on the PIL site for at least Universal 
MacPython2.5 -- the one distributed by python.org. For PIL version 1.1.6 
you can get it here:

http://pythonmac.org/packages/py25-fat/index.html

For future versions, post a request to this list and/or the pythonmac 
list, and I'm sure you can get someone to build one for you that you can 
post. Do make sure that it's a Universal Build(PPC+Intel) and it's 
statically linked against external libs (also Universal).

It might be nice to have another one for Python2.4 or Apple's Python, 
but that's less critical.

Second Choice:

Point folks to: http://pythonmac.org/packages/py25-fat/index.html 
Hopefully we'll manage to keep that up to date.

Oh, and a page or link to a page about how to build for OS-X if someone 
does want to build their own.

-Chris

-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

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