[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Christopher Barker]

konrad.hinsen at laposte.net wrote:
>>> What I was looking for is actually a bit more modest: I want to
>>> create an installer that checks that all dependencies are fulfilled.

> True, but I don't mind. The users I am thinking of know nothing about  
> Python and would just install packages. I want to be able to warn  
> them if they forget one or try to install them in the wrong order.

> If there is no such tool, I guess it would be easy to write in  
> Python

The fundamental issue here is that Apple has not given us a 
full-featured package management tool. Perhaps it would be better to 
figure out the best system for Python, rather than kludging around the 
limitations of .mpkgs.

My first thought on that is setup-tools -- it seems to have all the 
features you want, except for the ability for a non-python-aware user 
to just click on something. That being the case, what we need is a 
little micro-gui to associate with eggs, so that people can just click 
on them, and get a little dialog asking if they want to install, etc.

The trick here is: what to write it in?

PyObjC, wxPython, Tk, all need to be installed correctly before they can 
be used.

Maybe we could use the wxPython that Apple delivers (do they deliver a 
usable Tk?), or maybe it could be written in ObjC instead of Python (NO! 
say it isn't so!) Another option is to make sure that the MacPython 
installer installs something usable by default -- PyObjC, wxPython, TK, 
or???

Other thoughts?

-Chris


-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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