[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Bob Ippolito]

On 9/20/06, Ronald Oussoren <ronaldoussoren at mac.com> wrote:
>
> On Sep 20, 2006, at 8:25 PM, Bob Ippolito wrote:
>
> > On 9/20/06, Blake Winton <bwinton at latte.ca> wrote:
> >> Bob Ippolito wrote:
> >>> On 9/19/06, Robert Love <rblove at airmail.net> wrote:
> >>>> I'd like a simple explanation of what MacPython does for me and my
> >>>> existing installation.  I did check the FAQ but didn't see any
> >>>> thing
> >>>> like this.
> >>> MacPython is newer and community supported. It can be used to build
> >>> universal redistributable applications. Universal MacPython 2.4.3 is
> >>> the safest bet right now, 2.5 just came out (today!) and there are
> >>> known incompatibilities with several popular applications. There
> >>> also
> >>> many pre-built easy to install libraries available for 2.4:
> >>> http://pythonmac.org/packages/py24-fat/
> >>
> >> As a side question, why go with MacPython instead of MacPorts'
> >> version
> >> of Python?  (I've gone with MacPython, personally, but I'm not really
> >> clear what the reasons were, other than it seems to work okay this
> >> way.)
> >>
> >
> > MacPorts is supported by the MacPorts community, and MacPython is
> > supported by the Python community. More packages are used and tested
> > with MacPython than with MacPorts or Fink.
>
> The MacPorts folks have over 300 ports that are python related, I
> assume they actually test their ports ;-).  As Bob noted MacPython is
> supported by the Python community, "we" also maintain the mac port,
> macports and fink just repackage that.

I'm pretty sure they don't test all of them beyond "setup.py install" working.

> A major conceptual difference between MacPorts/Fink and MacPython is
> that the the first two are projects to use unix software on the mac,
> while MacPython is more focused on fitting in with the OS.
>
> To increase the confusion: there's also an ActiveState distribution
> of Python. This is also a framework install. I have no idea why you
> would want to use this unless you need commercial support for your
> python installation.
>

You might want it if you want to see escape codes whenever you try and
use the history keys, or if you really hate having a working bsddb
module ;) But then again, you can just use Apple's for those
"features".

That said, ActiveState did release a slightly more usable Python (as
far as installation goes anyway) than MacPython during the period
between 2.4.1 and the universal build of 2.4.3. And I believe they
released an Intel-only build before we did universal support... but
those reasons are no longer relevant and haven't been for quite some
time.

-bob