[Pythonmac-SIG] pythonw

[Chris Fonnesbeck]

Sorry in advance for what may, in fact, be a naive post, but I am
trying to figure out the significance of pythonw on OSX. I know that
you need to run pythonw if you intend to use python programs with
certain graphical backends, otherwise the UI becomes unresponsive.
Running idle from the command line, for example, starts an instance of
idle that is unusable. My question is: why have both python and
pythonw? When would you ever *not* want user interfaces not to work?
This problem does not arise on other platforms, does it? Its a bit of
a hassle, at the moment, to try and figure out when to use one or the
other. Are there any plans to remove this apparently unnecessary
dichotomy?

Thanks for any information,
Chris