[Pythonmac-SIG] install again?

[Bill Janssen]

Kevin Walzer replies to Charles Hartman:
> Charles Hartman wrote:
> > Hence, yet again, a plea for newbies everywhere:
> > 
> > I continue to believe that it really, really shouldn't be necessary for
> > people who want to write programs in Python for the Mac to do all this.
> > Great to learn as much as possible, yes, always -- but to require
> > people, just to get started, to learn about shells and the Terminal,
> > which they may never have dealt with before, even if they have a variety
> > of Mac programming experience, is not to put Python on its best footing.
> > 
> 
> It *isn't* necessary to do all that. Just use the vendor-provided
> Python, type "python" in your shell, and you are ready to go.

And where does the newbie find that info?

Here's what a newbie sees when they follow the MacPython link on
www.python.org:

(in bold) "Download Python for Macintosh"

implying that you need to *do* that!  Followed by:

"Through version 2.3, Python for the Macintosh was maintained by Jack
Jansen. See Jack's MacPython Page."

The last updates here were done in 2004.

None of the python.org pages point to pythonmac.org.  And pythonmac.org
is still organized around the idea that you have to install Python on
a Mac before using it.  Jack Jansen's now-out-of-date pages lead the
parade on pythonmac.org.

The next problem comes in when you want something out of the stdlib,
like PIL or Numeric.  Everybody packaging for MacOS X isn't packaging
for the 2.3.5 supplied Python; instead, there are package managers and
Python2.4Fixes and eggs and nobody-quite-knows-what to install and
master if you want to use one of these additional tools.  Not really
true, of course, but that's what it looks like.

It's a mess.  I've been using Python since 1992, and I still am not
sure that I understand what the MacPython community is doing, though
I'm sure that the technical content of whatever it is that they are
doing is great!  So I just use the 2.3.5 standard Apple install, and
download and build every non-standard package from scratch.

Bill