[Pythonmac-SIG] ANN: py2app 0.1.8

[Bob Ippolito]

(see also: 
<http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2005/03/17/ann-py2app-018/>)

`py2app`_ is the bundlebuilder replacement we've all been waiting for.  
It is implemented as a distutils command, similar to `py2exe`_, that 
builds Mac OS X applications from Python scripts, extensions, and 
related data files.  It tries very hard to include all dependencies it 
can find so that your application can be distributed standalone, as Mac 
OS X applications should be.

`py2app`_ 0.1.8 will be included in the installer for `PyObjC`_ 1.3.  
If you have installed `PyObjC`_ 1.3, then you already have `py2app`_ 
0.1.8 installed.

Download and related links are here: http://undefined.org/python/#py2app

py2app 0.1.8 is a major enhancements release:

Bugs fixed:

- Symlinks in included frameworks should be preserved correctly
   (fixes Tcl/Tk)
- Fixes some minor issues with alias bundles
- Removed implicit SpiderImagePlugin -> ImageTk reference in PIL
   recipe
- The ``--optimize`` option should work now
- ``weakref`` is now included by default
- ``anydbm``'s dynamic dependencies are now in the standard implies
   list
- Errors on app launch are brought to the front so the user does
   not miss them
- bdist_mpkg now compatible with pychecker (data_files had issues)

Options changed:

- deprecated ``--strip``, it is now on by default
- new ``--no-strip`` option to turn off stripping of executables

New features:

- Looks for a hacked version of the PyOpenGL __init__.py so that
   it doesn't have to include the whole package in order to get
   at the stupid version file.
- New ``loader_files`` key that a recipe can return in order to
   ensure that non-code ends up in the .zip (the pygame recipe
   uses this)
- Now scans all files in the bundle and normalizes Mach-O load
   commands, not just extensions.  This helps out when using the
   ``--package`` option, when including frameworks that have plugins,
   etc.
- An embedded Python interpreter is now included in the executable
   bundle (``sys.executable`` points to it), this currently only
   works for framework builds of Python
- New ``macho_standalone`` tool
- New ``macho_find`` tool
- Major enhancements to the way plugins are built
- bdist_mpkg now has a ``--zipdist`` option to build zip files
   from the built package
- The bdist_mpkg "Installed to:" description is now based on the
   package install root, rather than the build root

.. _`py2app`:  http://undefined.org/python/#py2app
.. _`pyobjc`: http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net/
.. _`py2exe`: http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/py2exe/