[Pythonmac-SIG] a beginner's list

[Bob Ippolito]

On Feb 7, 2006, at 11:07 PM, Christopher Barker wrote:

> Chris Porter wrote:
>> And here, Mac comes with Python! Very nice.
>> That shouldn't be downplayed. All I needed was the Python that was  
>> already
>> installed, plus a couple added things. (I needed Python to talk to  
>> MySQL, and
>> that I had to install MySQL, so there was likely no native ability  
>> to do so on
>> the Mac I've got.)
>
> This is my point. You couldn't actually get anything done without
> downloading and installing _something_. Once you're doing that, it  
> would
> have made very little difference if you had downloaded and installed a
> new version of Python as well.
>
> However, what would have made a difference is whether or not a package
> for the MySQL lib were easily available or not. That's why whatever  
> the
> MacPython community endorses and documents should be a version with as
> broad package support as possible. I think that's 2.4.*, rather  
> than the
>   Apple supplied python.
>
> In addition, if you have your code running just fine and dandy under
> Apple's python, then you upgrade to 10.5, chances are that your app  
> will
> no longer work, as Apple is likely to yank their python out from under
> you. If it were running with a user-installed Python, chances are it
> would keep working.

For that reason (and many others) it's a hell of a lot easier,  
support-wise, to say that everyone should install a non-Apple build.

All we really have to do to make the experience better is to do what  
Darwinports does and hack their .profile (or whatever) upon  
installation such that it ends up in PATH automagically.   
Practicality beats purity in this case.  There's plenty of other  
things that could be done, such as replacing PythonLauncher with  
something that'll pop open a console if you double-click on a ".py"  
file like it does on win32.

Right now, there's a lot of lower level things that need to be fixed  
that are much higher priority.  The experienced users doing all this  
hacking need something that works more than they need something  
that's easy and kinda works.  The workaround in the meantime has to  
be documentation, and that task is better done by people who aren't  
more comfortable in Terminal than Finder (read as: not me) :)

-bob