[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Bob Ippolito]

On 9/21/06, Christopher Barker <Chris.Barker at noaa.gov> wrote:
> Robert Love wrote:
> > On Sep 20, 2006, at 3:31 PM, Ronald Oussoren wrote:
> >> 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.
> >
> > Here is the statement that puzzles me the most.  OSX is Unix.  What
> > differences are you referring to?
>
> Here's how I think about it, and why I don't use fink or darwinports:
>
> The whole POINT of OS-X is that Apple has put a nice layer on top of
> Unix that meets the expectations of modern, non-programmer, computer
> users. To that end, Apple has actually made it a bit awkward to do
> traditional unixy things, in tradition unixy ways. In addition, they've
> added a number of features (Frameworks, application bundles, "universal"
> binaries, etc.) that make it easier for them to provide the user
> experience that that they are trying to provide.
>
> fink and macports are both efforts to bring as much Unix software to the
> Mac as possible. They have both taken the easy way out (I don't mean
> that to be critical, they never would had nearly as much working if they
> hadn't). That is, they've made OS-X look and act like *nix (Linux
> mostly, as least as far as fink is concerned), rather than make ALL the
> software they are porting do things the OS-X way. To me, it feels a lot
> like Cygwin on Windows. It feels like I'm doing either Unix or OS-X;
> they are not well integrated. Almost like running a virtual machine with
> Linux on it.
>
> I've never understood the appeal to this. If I wanted Linux, I'd run
> Linux (indeed I do, more that OS-X). I guess the appeal is that you can
> run iTunes and MS Office, and the unixy stuff on the same box at the
> same time. I do get that. However, when I write python software for
> OS-X, I want it to fit in with OS-X, so I try to use the only tools that
> are OS-X native.
>
> Still a question: my understanding is that to run apps that access Aqua,
> the app needs to be in an application bundle. As Macports and fink don't
> provide application bundles -- how is it even possible to use them to
> write apps that use Aqua? Or is there a fink version of pythonw?

IIRC the MacPorts Python has been a somewhat weird framework build for
some time, so it can probably do Aqua apps. No idea what Fink does,
I've stayed away from it for years due to bad experiences.

py2app could technically be used to create GUI apps for unix builds of
python.. but that hasn't been tested in a long time and probably
doesn't work as-is.

-bob