Python+tkinter errors on OSX

[Kevin Walzer]

John Chambers wrote:
> Sp my latest adventure is attempting to use python's Tkinter module on a
> few machines.
> On my PB (OSX 10.3.9), I got the following confusing results:
> 
> /Users/jc: python
> Python 2.3 (#1, Sep 13 2003, 00:49:11)
> [GCC 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1495)] on darwin
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> import Tkinter
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
>   File
> "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/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
>>>> ^D
> /Users/jc: ls -l
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/lib-tk/*inter*
> 
> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  154289 13 Sep  2003
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/lib-tk/Tkinter.py
> 
> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  262073 13 Sep  2003
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/lib-tk/Tkinter.pyc
> 
> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  262073 13 Sep  2003
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/lib-tk/Tkinter.pyo
> 
> /Users/jc:
> 
> So I'm trying to discover what's going wrong here, and how to fix it.
> It does appear that Tkinter has been "installed", in some weak sense
> of the term.  Under /System/Library/... there's a lib-tk directory, and
> it contains some Tkinter.* files.  Furthermore, python's import command
> clearly looked there and did something with the expected Tkinter.py
> file.  But whatever it did was clearly not enough, because something
> called "_tkinter" was expected but not found.
> 
> I also experimented with PATH and PYTHONPATH, to no apparent
> effect on anything.
> 
> Anyone here know how to diagnose and/or fix this?  What's it trying
> to tell me?  I have a feeling that it's there somewhere, but the proverbial
> ducks aren't lined up quite right.
> 
> (Or maybe this isn't the right NG for such questions.  If so, what might
> be a better one?)
You probably don't have Tcl/Tk installed.

A package for 10.3 is available at http://tcltkaqua.sourceforge.net.

-- 
Cheers,

Kevin Walzer, PhD
WordTech Software - "Tame the Terminal"
http://www.wordtech-software.com
sw at wordtech-software.com