[Pythonmac-SIG] Installing unix Python on OS X...a few details wanted

[Russell E Owen]

christopher ariza <ariza@flexatone.com> wrote (in regards to getting Tkinter fully working on Macs):

>get MacOSX
>install Fink: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fink/
>
>with Fink, you can easily (did i say easily? i meant very very easily) install Xfree86, XDarwin, Python, and Tk. this is done all in a different directory (/sw), so your system is not changed at all. once this is up, you can run Tkinter in Python from Xwindows just as if it were any unix, without a single problem. you can have multiple instances of Tk, Pmw works, the Grayson examples work, all without any hassle. did i say it was easy?

Sounds great. So I bought Mac OS X and installed it (ugh; did you know FileMaker Pro 4 doesn't run in Classic?). Anyway, I installed Fink and used it to install:
- Xfree86-base
- Xfree86-root (the rootless server; there was no option in "sudo dselect" for the Xfree86-server, the allegedly-more-stable rooted server). This shows up as XDarwin in applications, so I think I'm on the right track.

But now I have a few questions before I mess things up:
- Which python should I use? Fink offers one that explicitly excludes X, which sounds suspicious. So I should use the standard unix distribution? Or perhaps a command-line version of fink to get source?
- I already have tcl and tk on my Mac in System:Library:Tcl. So should I also install the fink version or should I skip that and hope Python can find it (or configure it to do so)? I don't see obvious signs of shared libraries, which suggests using fink.

-- Russell