[Pythonmac-SIG] Versions, Frameworks, Linking, PantherPythonFix

[Bob Ippolito]

On Feb 23, 2005, at 2:39 AM, Roger Binns wrote:

>> There is no vendor Python on Windows, so py2exe can make no such 
>> distinction.
>
> Technically there is on many HP/Compaq machines :-)

But is that runtime actually "accessible", or is it stashed away in a 
dark corner?

> And in the thread on setting PATH, that is exactly what I need to
> do since the code is cross platform.

Not really, the only point that matters is when you run "python 
setup.py py2app".  It doesn't matter what the #! line is in your main 
script or setup.py -- unless of course your setup.py is +x and you 
start it as an executable, but I don't think that's very common.

> I actually can't see *any* benefit to me at all of Apple's Python.

The largest benefit is that you can get binary packages of stuff that 
work with it.

With a user framework install of 2.3.5, you'll basically have to find 
packages designated for Jaguar, since the people that package stuff 
only support the vendor Python on Panther.  These packages generally 
are compiled with only Jaguar features.  For example, there is no 
unicode version of wxPython available for Jaguar (since libiconv didn't 
ship on Jaguar, and they don't compile it into wxPython I guess).  
PyObjC's Jaguar installer is missing some of the support for Mac OS X 
10.3 features, etc.  In most other cases, Jaguar packages simply are 
not available.

However, if the packages were built with PantherPythonFix, then they 
can be trivially migrated from the vendor Python to your installation 
simply by copying from /Library/Python/2.3 to the appropriate 
site-packages folder.  Unfortunately, very few packages have been built 
with such an environment (though at least most, but probably all, of 
the ones that I provide probably are).

As another note, if you are using the MacPython 2.3.5 from Jack's site, 
it will use Jaguar style linking since it was built for 10.2.  So 
anything built with that Python will not be portable back to the vendor 
Python.

> Are there any instructions anywhere on how to remove Apple's
> version, and put on an official Python.org blessed version and
> ensure the latter resides somewhere on my path?

Do not, under any circumstance, remove anything Apple put on your 
machine.  Unless you REALLY know what you're doing.

If you don't want to use Apple's Python, then don't use it, but don't 
try and get rid of it.  Generally, other Python installations cause 
problems with Apple's (unless it has been PantherPythonFixed), but not 
vice versa.

-bob