ANN: ActivePython 2.4.2.10 is now available

[Trent Mick]

I'm happy to announce that ActivePython 2.4.2.10 is now available for free
download from:
    http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/ActivePython/

This release is a maintenance/update release for existing platforms and adds
support for three new ones: Mac OS X/x86, Windows/x64 and Linux/x86_64.  See
below for a full list of supported platforms.

Changes in this release include:
- Add early support for Mac OS X for Intel platform (macosx-x86).
  Please see the "Mac OS X for Intel" section below for details.
- Upgrade to PyWin32 build 207 on Windows/x86
- Upgrade Tkinter to Tcl/Tk 8.4.12
- Support for Windows/x64 (win64-x64). Note that PyWin32 has not been ported
  to 64-bit Windows so this build does not include PyWin32.
- Support for Linux/x86_64 (linux-x86_64)
- Fixed a problem on Mac OS X/PowerPC that unintentionally created a
  dependency on Fink (fink.sourceforge.net) for the "bz2" and "curses"
  extensions. (Thanks, Bob!)
- The Windows "debug libraries" package now allows installation into
  non-ActivePython Python installations of the same version. This was
  requested by Dave Abrahams for the Boost folks (http://tinyurl.com/898zw).
- Changed Intel 32-bit architecture platform name from "ix86" to "x86",
  changing package names for some ActivePython builds.


Mac OS X for Intel
------------------

This is the first release of ActivePython for Mac OS X/Intel. It should be
considered an early release. This build is not a universal build and there
are a number of known issues:
    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/docs/ActivePython/2.4/relnotes.html#KI_macosx

I suspect that ultimately a universal Python build is the right answer, but 
details and issues around that should be discussed on the Python Mac mailing
list:
    pythonmac-sig at python.org


What is ActivePython?
---------------------

ActivePython is ActiveState's quality-assured binary distribution of
Python. Builds for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows 
are made freely available.

ActivePython includes the Python core and core extensions (zlib 1.2.3,
bzip2 1.0.2, bsddb 4.2.52, Tk 8.4.12, and Tix 8.1.4) and is fully
compatible with other Python distributions of the same version.

ActivePython also includes a wealth of Python documentation, including:
- the core Python docs;
- Andrew Kuchling's "What's New in Python" series;
- the Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python;
- Mark Pilgrim's excellent "Dive into Python"; and
- a snapshot of the Python FAQs, HOWTOs, and PEPs.

An online version of the docs can be found here:
    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/docs/ActivePython/2.4/welcome.html

We would welcome any and all feedback to:
    ActivePython-feedback at ActiveState.com

Please file bugs against ActivePython at:
    http://bugs.ActiveState.com/ActivePython


On what platforms does ActivePython run?
----------------------------------------

ActivePython now includes installers for the following ten platforms:

- AIX/PowerPC
- HP-UX/PA-RISC
- Linux/x86
- (new) Linux/x86_64: "x86_64" is also known as "AMD64"
- Solaris/SPARC
- Solaris/x86
- Mac OS X/PowerPC
- (new) Mac OS X/x86:
- (new) Windows/x64: "x64" is also known as "AMD64"
- Windows/x86


Extra Bits
----------

ActivePython releases also include the following packages:

- Windows "debug" package: Debug-built binaries for ActivePython
  users building debug versions of their binary Python extensions.
- ActivePython24.chm: An MS compiled help collection of the full
  ActivePython documentation set. Linux users of applications such as
  xCHM might find this useful. This package is installed by default on
  Windows.

These packages are available from:
    ftp://ftp.activestate.com/ActivePython/etc/


Thanks, and enjoy!

Trent, Python Tech Lead

--
Trent Mick
TrentM at ActiveState.com