homebrew 2.3 install on RedHat9 not playing nice with Tkinter

[Martin Franklin]

On Wednesday 27 August 2003 9:12 pm, Rob Andrews wrote:
> I'm on a Red Hat 9 system, which has Python 2.2.2 installed, and I
> installed 2.3 separately into /home/rob/Python-2.3/ (creating the symbolic
> link "py23" to point to my 2.3 installation). Now I'm trying to work out
> the kinks in the process.
>
> Unable to run Idle using 2.3 the way I've got things set up, I created a
> super simple Tkinter test program that just pops up a Label widget. I
> pasted below an example of how the RH-provided 2.2 runs the script without
> incident, but running the script with 2.3 produces a traceback. If someone
> can help me see the error of my ways, I'll be most appreciative.
>
> [Wed Aug 27][03:01 PM] ~/Python-2.3/test $ python -V
> Python 2.2.2
> [Wed Aug 27][03:04 PM] ~/Python-2.3/test $ py23 -V
> Python 2.3
> [Wed Aug 27][03:01 PM] ~/Python-2.3/test $ py23 test2.py
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "test2.py", line 1, in ?
>     from Tkinter import Label
>   File "/home/rob/Python-2.3/Lib/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 38, in ?
>     import _tkinter # If this fails your Python may not be configured for
> Tk ImportError: No module named _tkinter
> [Wed Aug 27][03:01 PM] ~/Python-2.3/test $ python test2.py
>
> -Rob
> (mediocre with Python, incompetent with linux)



Rob,

I had another look and I think I see your problem...   basically I removed the 
/usr/local build of Tcl/Tk so that python 2.3 would 'find' the redhat 9 build 
of Tcl/Tk....

so I ran configure then make and right at the end of the make:-

building '_tkinter' extension
gcc -pthread -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC 
-fno-strict-aliasing -DWITH_APPINIT=1 -I/usr/X11R6/include -I. 
-I/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/./Include 
-I/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Include 
-I/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3 -c 
/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Modules/_tkinter.c -o 
build/temp.linux-i686-2.3/_tkinter.o
/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Modules/_tkinter.c:96:2: #error 
"unsupported Tcl configuration"
/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Modules/_tkinter.c: In function 
`AsObj':
/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Modules/_tkinter.c:947: warning: 
passing arg 1 of `Tcl_NewUnicodeObj' from incompatible pointer type
/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Modules/_tkinter.c: In function 
`FromObj':
/usr/python/Python23/TEST111/Python-2.3/Modules/_tkinter.c:1073: warning: 
passing arg 1 of `PyUnicodeUCS2_FromUnicode' from incompatible pointer type




So it looks like the Tcl/Tk version that comes with RedHat 9 (it apears to be 
Tk 8.3.5 accordfing to the tk.h file in /usr/include) is not compatible with 
the Tkinter in Python 2.3.  This means _tkinter.so is not built  and Tkinter 
will not work!

On way round this little problem would be to build your own Tcl/Tk
(thats what I did)  Not only will you get a working Python 2.3 but you get the 
new options in Tk 8.4 too all for an extra couple of downloads and about 30 
mins of 'work'.


Cheers
Martin