[Pythonmac-SIG] Is Python right for what I want to do?

[Kevin Ollivier]

Hi all,

On Aug 15, 2004, at 11:02 AM, Bob Ippolito wrote:

> On Aug 15, 2004, at 12:46 PM, Rodney Somerstein wrote:
>
>> I have a project that I want to work on which will eventually be open 
>> source. I think that Python and wxPython will allow me to do 
>> everything that I need capability-wise. Where my questions come in is 
>> really more related to packaging and delivery. In the past, I have 
>> avoided Python, especially on the Mac, as the installation 
>> requirements for an end-user application have seemed overly complex. 
>> It seems that I might now be able to produce a double-clickable 
>> application with a simple installer that could be used 
>> cross-platform.
>
> On OS X, you can put Python and all other dependencies inside the 
> application bundle itself, with no installer required.  On Windows, 
> it's easy to make a simple installer.  On Linux you pretty much just 
> have to hope the user is smart enough to figure out the dependencies 
> (unless you do per-distro packaging).

Just to add, this really is the case when packaging anything on Linux, 
so this isn't really a specific minus against Python but rather an 
issue with the whole "mix and match" of components philosophy on Linux. 
It's the primary thing that keeps me from building Linux packages - I'd 
need to do them on a distro-by-distro basis, and have to learn several 
different packaging formats in the process.

>> Is there anything else I would want to be aware of?
>
> wxPython has had a history of bugs on Mac OS X.  This situation is 
> constantly improving, and it may be fine now, but I highly suggest you 
> take a look at other wxPython applications that have Mac OS X builds 
> and see if they work well enough for you.  Jäger is the only one that 
> does regular builds that I can think of.

For wxPython, you could also (aside from testing the latest demo of 
course, which I highly recommend =) sign up for the 
wxpython-mac at lists.wxwidgets.org and wxPython-dev at lists.wxwidgets.org 
lists and ask people about their experiences, what they think of 
wxPython on Mac, etc.

> Python (but not wxPython) has been technically ready to do what you 
> want to do on Mac OS X for several years.  The packaging tools are not 
> polished but they do work.  Better packaging tools are partially 
> developed and will be available eventually, but I can't make any 
> promises as to when I'll have mine done (or if anyone else will come 
> up with something before me).
>
> The "state of the art" packaging tool is bundlebuilder2 (currently 
> living at http://svn.red-bean.com/bob/macholib/trunk/ - I don't think 
> it's in working condition right now) , which is a marginal improvement 
> over the original bundlebuilder.  Basically does the correct thing 
> with dylibs and frameworks, which makes packaging more automatic (it 
> knows what non-standard libraries your python extensions linked to) 
> and it makes the bundles themselves compatible with more machines 
> (it's possible to have conflicts if the 'correct thing' wasn't done).

BTW, bb2 works for me so long as I do semi-standalone (Panther only, of 
course) and also, for my app, I needed to disable ZIP_IMPORT, which has 
problems with extensions such as PyXML. In the next week or two I'll be 
making some wxPython .app bundles and will post them here when they're 
ready.

Thanks,

Kevin