[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Bob Ippolito]

On 10/2/06, Christopher Barker <Chris.Barker at noaa.gov> wrote:
> 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?

It's not a great idea to put a front-end on easy_install at this
point. It would be an enormous amount of work for very little gain.
It's also not at all designed such that it's easy to break what it's
doing up into little chunks so that you can properly display status
and whatnot from a GUI.

Using easy_install is quite easy -- you type "easy_install
WhatYouNeed" and press return. That's it. Users currently need some
familiarity with Terminal in order to get anything done with Python
anyway.

-bob