[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <CE9E01CC-0164-4450-8B3D-590EB1E0FC9F at mac.com>,
 Ronald Oussoren <ronaldoussoren at mac.com> wrote:

> 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.

Here's one reason: ActiveState Python can actually see the ActiveState 
Tcl/Tk if present. You can convince MacPython to do it, but it take some 
black magic.

The Tcl/Tk that is built into Tiger has some nasty bugs. Users are much 
better off upgrading to 8.4.11 and ActiveState offers the only installer 
package I know of that does that (MacPorts may do it, but during the 
transition from DarwinPorts to MacPorts I couldn't find any way to find 
out).

If you think Mac users are crazy to use the built in python instead of 
installing a more recent version, the situation is similar or worse for 
the built in Tcl/Tk (and will be even more so once a universal Tcl/Tk 
installer is available).

I mentioned this a few days ago and somebody said "why don't you submit 
a patch" for the MacPython build process.

I've started looking into that. However, my strong suspicion is that the 
way to build a MacPython installer that can use a user-installed Tcl/Tk 
is to *have* a user-installed Tcl/Tk installed before building python 
for the MacPython installer package.

-- Russell