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

[Roger Binns]

>> Technically there is on many HP/Compaq machines :-)
> 
> But is that runtime actually "accessible", or is it stashed away in a 
> dark corner?

Very acessible.  It definitely starts out as a standard install
from python.org and is in the Add/Remove programs in the same
way.

>> 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.

It matters all the rest of the time as well since I also do development!
I run the main program as well as many other files (if __name__=='__main__')
and having to type the correct path each time would be a pain.

>> 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.

There are exactly two binary packages I care about.  One is readline
and the other is wxPython which you discuss.  On Windows the installers
for binary packages read the locations of installed Pythons from
the registry and everything works so smoothly.

>> 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.

One of the web pages said it was an optional install, keyed of selecting
some other package.  So I take it by your comment that they don't
use some sort of packaging system that allows removing packages
for Python.

Taking a step back, am I the only person who thinks the Python situation
on Mac is absolutely ridiculous, although 10.2 looks better than 10.3.
All I want is one up to date version of Python on my system, and have
binary and source extensions just work.  This is what it is like on
Windows and Linux.

Roger