[Pythonmac-SIG] on a tangent from new icons

[Ronald Oussoren]

On 21-apr-2006, at 22:44, Jacob Rus wrote:

> While we're adding a bunch of icons to Mac Python, and editing
> Info.plist files, and so on, I think we might as well make a few other
> changes:
>
>   1. If it doesn't already, I think Mac Python should ship with a  
> python
>      spotlight importer (I got one somewhere else, but should be  
> default)

For the moment anything in the official installer needs to be part of  
the
official python.org distribution. Anything else needs to be installed  
seperately
for now.

That may change in the future, but not until I've had time to think  
about
the issues and write down a proposal about what to include and what not.

>
>   2. Let's export some UTI's for .pyc/.pyo files and .egg files (maybe
>      public.python-bytecode and public.python-egg or something, or  
> maybe
>      they need to be org.python.python-bytecode, etc.)

At least some of these are part of the OS. It can't hurt to add these  
UTIs to
the Info.plist for IDLE of course.

>
>   3. Let's make sure that python files get useful "kMDItemKind" names.
>      Right now, if I associate one with PythonIDE.app, I get "plain  
> text
>      file" for .pyc, and "Document" for .pyo, which is not useful.

That related to the spotlight importer.

>
>   4. Let's add some spaces in the names of things like PythonIDE.app,
>      BuildApplet.app, PythonLauncher.app and PackageManager.app.

PythonIDE.app and PackageManager.app are deprecated and will not be  
included
in future versions of the installer (or the current universal one for  
that
matter). Adding a space to PythonLauncher and BuildApplet is a good  
idea.

>
>
> Some other questions:
>
>    * What's the difference between PythonIDE.app and IDLE.app?  Should
>      they get different icons?  Is one of them preferred to the  
> other?  I
>      just use TextMate and iPython from terminal, so I don't really  
> know
>      what all they do.

Ignore PythonIDE.app.

>
>    * What exactly do python eggs do?  Are they just extra modules
>      packaged up, or can you run them as standalone apps?

They are packaged python libraries, basically a cross-platform  
alternative
to .mpkg installer and simular to java's JAR files.

>
>    * If the latter, how exactly do eggs differ from the applet's  
> created
>      by BuildApplet.app?

Applets are applications, eggs are libraries.

>
>    * Do we want different icons for py2applet.app and BuildApplet.app?
>      What exactly is the difference between these?

I'm entertaining the thought of just dropping BuildApplet and  
advocating the
use of py2applet instead. Until we actually drop BuildApplet we can  
use the
same icon for py2applet and BuildApplet.

>
> Basically, I'm confused by the seemingly endless official or
> semi-official ways to package up python code and edit it on the Mac.
> Are any of these deprecated?

* PythonLauncher: double-click on .py/.pyw files to run them

* IDLE: python IDE (cross-platform using tkinter)

* py2applet: build standalone applications using drag&drop.

* BuildApplet: simular to py2applet, but older


PythonIDE is the MacOS9 IDE for python, PackageManager is an attempt at
an easy to use tool for installing additinal packages. Both are no  
longer
maintained and are deprecated.

Now that we (almost) have new icons it would be great if someone  
could have
a look at IDLE and at the very least writes down what could be done  
to make
it a better OSX citizen. Actual patches would of course even be better.

Please keep in mind that IDLE is a cross-platform application using
tkinter and that it is probably virtually impossible to make it a
really great OSX application.

Ronald
>
> -Jacob
>
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