[Pythonmac-SIG] IDLE on OS X

[Mitchell L Model]

I just reviewed the last four months of Python mailing list mail on 
Python to see what the status of IDLE is on the Mac, and I'm pretty 
confused.  There seem to be so many variations of Python for OS X 
that it's hard to tell what works with what.  Can someone please 
summarize the state of IDLE on OS X or post recommendations for using 
it?

I can answer one question: "How do I start IDLE on OS X?".  I've 
never used IDLE before, so this was a non-trivial exercise for me, 
that included reading various web pages, pointed to in the usual 
places, about Tk on OS X and using Tkinter in Python on OS X.  I 
still didn't find anything that said how to start IDLE, but with a 
little experimentation and a lot of guessing, I found at least the 
following worked (I'm using XDarwin and python 2.2.1 installed via 
fink):

       start XDarwin

       In XDarwin, in an xterm or Emacs shell, do::

          % python
         >>> import Tkinter
          >>> import idlelib.idle

and if everything's OK you get prompted for the IDLE shell window, 
from which you can open other windows.  Whether you can do anything 
useful after that is another question, which I haven't yet answered.

I've downloaded and installed various Tk/Tcl packages for OS X, both 
from within fink and separately, so unfortunately I can no longer 
characterize what you can expect to find in an unmoidifed OS X 
installation, what you get with fink python, what you get with other 
pythons, what you get by installing Tk/Tcl separately, and so forth. 
I haven't even figured out yet whether the Tk used when I import 
Tkinter is the Tk.framework in my /Library/Frameworks folder or one 
that's somewhere else.  (It would be easy enough to move the 
framework and try again, but I'm afraid to find out that things still 
work, because then I have to go figure out why :-)  It would be nice 
if someone could clarify for experienced OS X and python programmers 
who have never done anything with Tk or IDLE how this all ties 
together.  Or point to someplace that does.
-- 

     --- Mitchell