[Pythonmac-SIG] Distributing Python applications for the Mac

Konrad Hinsen hinsen at cnrs-orleans.fr
Sun Jan 4 08:23:35 EST 2004


Having regular access to a Mac now, I would like to prepare Mac-friendly 
distributions of my scientific applications, all written in Python. The goal 
is to make them available to users who don't know nor care much about Python, 
so the installation procedure should be as simple as possible.

At the moment I see two options:

1) Via fink. Very easy to do for me (so easy that I'll do it anyway), but my
   impression is that fink is not the Mac user's idea of user friendliness.

2) On top of MacPython using the package manager. That looks simpler for
   the users, but it seems to be a significant effort for me. I would have to
   provide a package directory on my Web server and prepare binary
   packages for all combinations of Python and MacOS versions, because
   automatic installation from source code doesn't work due to the header
   file installation problems (all my C modules are based on NumPy).

I am not terribly enthusiastic about either option. Is there perhaps another 
one? My wish list is:

- Simple installation for the user, via an installer or through simple file
  copy operations.
- Possibility to prepare distributions for a wide range of machines having
  only a single one for packaging (MacOS 10.3.2, MacPython 2.3.3).
- Automatic generation of distribution packages from the development
  source code.

Konrad.
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