[Pythonmac-SIG] Let's do it completely different!

[Jack Jansen]

On Monday, October 21, 2002, at 03:10 , Samuel M.Smith wrote:

>>
>> To start we build on the existing Apple-installed /usr/bin/python (or 
>> any other pre-installed Python, from fink or whereever). So, our 
>> MacPython-OSX installer does not necessarily include Python itself. 
>> This gives two immediate advantages: we can stuff everything into 
>> /Applications/Python (making installation and de-installation even 
>> easier) and we can do a MacPython-OSX distribution without waiting for 
>> Python 2.3. This would give people like Walt a decent way to explore 
>> Python through the IDE, without having to learn about the unix command 
>> line.
>>
> Yes, if there is a straightforward way to use another python 
> distribution like fink or a CVS install of a later version of python 
> and to switch back and forth then
> that would be good for me.

Installing on a different Python installation must definitely be 
possible. Whether switching from one to the other is possible: I'm not 
sure, but I don't think so. The way I have my experiments working at the 
moment is that inside the .app bundle for applets there's a symlink 
Contents/MacOS/python that points to /usr/bin/python (or whichever 
Python you installed MacPython on top of). If you decide to switch that 
means you would have to change those symlinks in all existing applets, 
and I don't that I can do that. And I don't think I can replace the 
symlink with something else (such as a tiny executable which could look 
up a preference), at least not without losing some functionality.
--
- Jack Jansen        <Jack.Jansen@oratrix.com>        
http://www.cwi.nl/~jack -
- If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman -