[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Tkinter on Panther?

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <54D7854E-34EC-11D8-B809-000A95686CD8 at redivi.com>,
 Bob Ippolito <bob at redivi.com> wrote:

> On Dec 23, 2003, at 7:30 AM, Russell E. Owen wrote:
> 
> > I've finally installed Panther today, and am trying to get my Python up
> > to date.
> >
> > Unfortunately, I'm not sure what to do about Tkinter. The issue is that
> > Apple seems to have included tcl with Panther
> > (/System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl) but there's no sign of Tk (what was
> > Apple thinking?).
> 
> They were probably thinking that TclTkAqua is buggy and unstable

Interesting. I've personally not had stability problems and I use it a 
fair amount. I agree that it's got a lot of cosmetic bugs, but I find 
them tolerable. Still, I use X11 Tkinter a bit more often than aqua 
Tkinter.

> > I could run the usual binary Tcl/Tk installer, but that would add both 
> > a
> > Tk and Tcl framework to /Library/Frameworks, and I'm worried about the
> > two Tcl frameworks colliding (e.g. something similar to the known
> > problems with Python).
> 
> It's not really similar, in your case you almost definitely want 
> /Library/Frameworks/Tcl to override /System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl for 
> "-framework Tcl" .. which is what will happen.

Yes. Thanks!

> > The only other options I've thought of are:
> > - Trash Tcl (and possibly Python) in System/Library/Frameworks and 
> > start
> > over, putting everything in /Library/Frameworks. This has the advantage
> > that I can easily apply updates. But I wonder if it'll break any Apple
> > stuff that relies on Tcl (or Python). What are the dangers of this?
> 
> DO NOT EVER TRASH ANYTHING IN /System! EVER!
> (small patches to known broken files are ok, though)

Jack said something similar when I asked about updating Python on 
Panther. But...why? I would expect the OS to see the new version in 
/Library/Frameworks and life to be good. Apparently my expectation is 
false.

> > - Run the tk binary installer and try to get it to see
> > /System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl but then install Tk in
> > /Library/Frameworks. Sounds ghastly.
> 
> It's not, it works fine.

Great. Thanks!

-- Russell