[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Apple's install vs. a custom install of Python

[Chris Barker]

Did I just send a blank message? oops.

Bill Bumgarner wrote:
> If the goal is merely to render the best possible Python runtime
> environment on the planet, I agree with Alex's statement wholeheartedly.

One of Alex's statements was that Apple might ship whatever it is we (or
Jack anyway :-) ) build, so we can have both the best possible Python
runtime, AND have it be a standard part of OS-X. I hope he's right!

> As such, making sure that our lowest common denominator is the Apple
> installation of Python has a huge advantage in that I can ship a 500k
> application that happens to be implemented in Python

I'm glad that works for you, but virtually everything I write makes use
of Numeric, and I make heavy use of PIL, and mxDateTime, and.... I think
one is likely to be wasting a lot of time if you write Python apps
without any additional modules, so you're going to need a good framework
in which to install those too.

Also, wonderful as PyObjC and Cocoa may be, many of us need to write
cross platform apps, and are hoping for wxPython to become robust enough
on the Mac to do it. Another HUGE package.

The result is that we need a good runtime environment that can ideally
be installed with one installer, and also can easily be added to, so
that I can say to my users: Install MacPython, then run my app, or, even
include MacPython in an installer with my App. I do want my apps to be
able to share the runtime, it will be big! I've used Py2exe on Windows
for a wxPython app, and it is absolutely huge with all the dlls.

> install some random package that required admin rights to install...

I do agree that it is best if admin rights aren't required.
 
Just van Rossum wrote:
> That's great, but has the risk of breaking the app if you upgrade your system.

This is a problem with Python on all systems, and one the Python core
developers don't seem to think is a problem, so no solution is in the
works.

On *nix, I can use the #! line to specify a Python version. On my linux
system, I have at least three versions installed (1.5.2 because RedHat
uses it, 2.1 because I have developed a large app with it, and 2.2
because I wanted to make sure it didn't break anythong before I got rid
of 2.1)

MacPython needs to be able to allow this too. There needs to be a way to
specify which version your app needs, and be able to have multiple
versions installed at once on the system. I have no idea how to handle
this on Windows, but I sure hope it won't be a problem on OS-X.

-Chris

-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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