[Pythonmac-SIG] How long until OS X Python is ready for prime time?

[David Eppstein]

Whenever I look through the archives of this list, or elsewhere on the net, 
I see: a big mess of multiple versions of Python, in varying states of 
development, OS-X friendliness and installability, with multiple different 
UI systems.  OS X.2 itself has a python pre-installed (yay!), but 
unfortunately without UI components.  My specific situation is as a 
developer of a large genealogy program (in C++, for Classic MacOS) that I 
would like to make native for OS X.  This requires a massive rewriting of 
code and it's beginning to look like it might be easier to start over from 
scratch in a friendlier programming language.

In order to do this in Python, I would need:
- OS X native look and feel
- Easy download and installation by computer-challenged senior citizens 
(e.g. standalone app with gzipped download size < 2Mb, no installation of 
other packages or complicated command lines)
- Transparent input and display of accented characters
- Multiple windows mixing multi-font text and vector graphics,
with ability to capture mouse click location within window

It would also be helpful, but not essential, to have cross-platform 
portability, display or editing of basic HTML text formatting, ability to 
convert contents of vector graphic windows to bitmap image files, and 
ability to distribute the program as closed source.

Is anything like this available now?  If so, which version of Python should 
I be looking at, and where are the easy installation instructions?  If not, 
will it be available any time soon, or should I be looking around for 
non-Python alternative solutions?
--
David Eppstein       UC Irvine Dept. of Information & Computer Science
eppstein@ics.uci.edu http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/