[Python-Dev] OS X Installer for 3.0.1 and supported versions

[Ronald Oussoren]

On 27 Feb, 2009, at 1:57, Ned Deily wrote:

> In article <rowen-8731E0.13531325022009 at news.gmane.org>,
> "Russell E. Owen" <rowen at u.washington.edu> wrote:
>> I want to follow up on this a bit. In the past if the Mac Python
>> installer was built on a machine that did NOT have a locally  
>> installed
>> Tcl/Tk then it would fail to work with a locally installed Tcl/Tk:
>> Python would segfault when trying to use Tkinter.
>>
>> The solution was to build the Mac python installer on a machine  
>> with a
>> locally installed Tcl/Tk. The resulting installer package would  
>> work on
>> all systems -- with or without locally installed Tcl/Tk.
>>
>> So...has this problem been worked around, or is the Mac installer  
>> still
>> built on a machine that has a locally installed Tcl/Tk?
>
> Ronald will have to answer that for sure since he built the installer
> for 3.0.1.
>
> However, it seems to be true that the most recent python.org OS X
> installers will always favor a /System/Library/Frameworks/{Tcl/Tk}:

That's correct, I don't have a locally installed Tcl/Tk on my laptop  
at the moment and couldn't arrange for one in time for the 3.0.1  
release.

BTW. The fact that this should result in crashes when a user does have  
a locally installed Tcl/Tk is new to me. The reason earlier builds of  
the OSX installer were build with a locally installed Tcl/Tk is that  
several Tkinter users indicated that the system version is  
significantly less useful than a local install.

>
>> Most people who makes serious use of Tkinter presumably have a  
>> locally
>> installed Tcl/Tk because the version that Apple provides is ancient  
>> and
>> is missing many important bug fixes and performance enhancements.
>>
>> Also, a somewhat related issue: Tcl/Tk 8.4 is no longer maintained.  
>> All
>> development work is going on in Tcl/Tk 8.5. Presumably Apple will
>> transition one of these days, and at that point we may need a  
>> separate
>> Mac Python installer for the older operating systems vs. the newer.
>
> Yes, something will need to be done for that if Snow Leopard does have
> newer versions.
>
> Thanks for bringing this up!

Do Python 2.6 and 3.0 support building with Tcl/Tk 8.5? I vaguely  
recall messages about issues on python-dev but don't know if those  
issues were real and/or solved.

Ronald
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