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

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <AD5BF985-3C9B-4D49-BFE6-0CFF1B57A00A at mac.com>,
 Ronald Oussoren <ronaldoussoren at mac.com> wrote:

> 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.

Any hope of an updated Mac installer for 2.5.4 and/or 2.6 that is built 
with a locally installed Tcl/Tk? If/when you do that, I strongly 
recommend ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.4.19 -- the last 8.4 release -- it has 
few bugs and very good performance.

(For Python 2.6 you could install Tcl/Tk 8.5 instead, but it might not 
work for folks using Apple's built-in Tcl/Tk 8.4. Maybe somebody else 
knows; if not it would require some testing.)

Note that even Python 2.5 built against Tcl/Tk 8.5 and most of it 
worked, but there were some known bugs.

-- Russell