[Numpy-discussion] Which Python to use for Mac binaries

[Chris Barker - NOAA Federal]

On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 2:04 AM, Ralf Gommers <ralf.gommers at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Which exact Python do we need to use on Mac? Do we need to use the
>> binary installer from python.org?
>
> Yes, the one from python.org.
>
>> Or can I install it from source?

you could install from source using the same method that the
python.org binaries are built -- there is a script with the source to
do that, though I'm not sure what the point of that would be.

> The 10.3 installers for 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 should be compiled on OS X 10.5.

It would be great to continue support for that, though I wonder how
many people still need it -- I don't think Apple supports 10.5
anymore, for instance.

> The 10.7 --> 10.6 support hasn't been checked, but I wouldn't trust it. I
> have a 10.6 machine, so I can compile those binaries if needed.

That would be better, but it would also be nice to check how building
on 10.7 works.

> Avoid using system Python for anything. The first thing to do on any new OS
> X system is install Python some other way, preferably from python.org.

+1

> Last note: bdist_mpkg is unmaintained and doesn't support Python 3.x. Most
> recent version is at: https://github.com/matthew-brett/bdist_mpkg, for
> previous versions numpy releases I've used that at commit e81a58a471

There has been recent discussion on the pythonmac list about this --
some waffling about how important it is -- though I think it would be
good to keep it up to date.

> If we want 3.x binaries, then we should fix that or (preferably) build
> binaries with Bento. Bento has grown support for mpkg's; I'm not sure how
> robust that is.

So maybe bento is a better route than bdist_mpkg -- this is worth
discussion on teh pythonmac list.

-Chris


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

Emergency Response Division
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Chris.Barker at noaa.gov