[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: [pygame] python + pygame on OSX

[Jack Jansen]

On 22-feb-04, at 3:14, Bob Ippolito wrote:

> Stuff you should avoid if possible are:
> 	runtime additions to sys.path
> 	intermingling of code and data (keep them in separate folders, please)
> 	using __file__ or similar mechanisms to find data (really a subissue 
> of the previous)

For the latter two we should invent something to help people. I know it 
should be a general Python solution, but as none seems to be 
forthcoming (lots of people have been asking about a way to access data 
files, and the party line still seem to be "put them in your package", 
even though that breaks with py2exe and zip imports and such) we should 
roll our own, I think.

We already have a working example in macresource, which solves a 
similar problem (finding a resource file, if the resources don't happen 
to be in the resource fork of the current executable already).

For opening data files the API would have to be something different, 
probably along the lines of filename = 
datafile.datafilename("mydatafile.txt", "mymodule"), where 
mydatafile.txt is first looked up in a directory specifically for 
datafiles (where it would be found if the program was run as a .app 
bundle), then in the same directory as mymodule.__file__.

For OSX bundles the datafile-directory specified above would be 
Contents/Resources, and people on other platforms using py2exe or 
somesuch are free to tag on to the scheme and invent their own magic 
location:-)
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman