[Pythonmac-SIG] Package installation

[Frederick C. Lee]

Greetings all...
     I'm a Python neophyte and am trying to run packages on the Mac  
(now 'Tiger').   Structurally, Potentially....  Python is a great  
scripting software and great for modeling systems being developed  
into Cocoa/Obj-C.   What struck me as a big problem on the OS X is  
the lack of a universal package-management system.

     I've been trying to build the Thuban™ GIS system that uses  
wxPython and other packages on my Mac.   The Setup.py routine fails  
to find critical wxPython packages causing the whole build to fail.   
I tried setting the PYTHONPATH env variable, etc.   What I'm trying  
to do, ultimately, is to create a savvy Cocoa/Obj-C GIS program based  
on Open-Source software.   But it's a royal pain to build native open- 
source code on the OS X as a model to work from.   The main problem  
is the builder (setup.py) just can find all the necessary stuff (even  
after ./configure).

I'm hitting brick walls here.

Ric.
Frustrated Mac developer & Oceanographer-wanna-be.

On Apr 18, 2005, at 9:02 AM, Chris Barker wrote:

> konrad.hinsen at laposte.net wrote:
>
>>> Can users be trusted to put Python packages in the right place on  
>>> their own?  If they have multiple versions of Python installed? I  
>>> would say no.
>>>
>> They do manage for applications, so why wouldn't they for Python  
>> packages?
>>
>
> No, they don't. Mac users put Applications all over the place on  
> their systems. In fact, one of the main advantages of the self  
> contained application bundle is that you can do exactly that: put  
> it anywhere, and you can click on it to run it. The old Macintosh  
> was specifically designed to support that kind of behavior. They  
> advertised the fact that files could be moved all over the place  
> without disrupting the system (this wasn't entirely true, when it  
> came to the system folder, but it was a lot more true than with  
> Unix or DOS/Windows). That legacy lives on. If you don't give Mac  
> users an installer, many, many, people will drop a bundle some  
> arbitrary place, and expect it to work.
>
> That being said, better uninstallation and version managing would  
> be great. This is one place that Apple is WAY behind the Linux  
> distros. They all have package managing systems, many of them  
> pretty darn nice.
>
> I'd love to see some kind of package versioning management built  
> into things from the Python side, one that will work across  
> platforms. wxPython has a pretty good approach:
>
> http://wiki.wxpython.org/index.cgi/MultiVersionInstalls
>
> -Chris
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
> Oceanographer
>
> NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT         (206) 526-6959   voice
> 7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
> Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception
>
> Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
> _______________________________________________
> Pythonmac-SIG maillist  -  Pythonmac-SIG at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
>
>