[Pythonmac-SIG] Building Python with X11 Tkinter

[Edward Hartley]

From: "C. E. Ball" <ceball at users.sf.net>
Date: 8 December 2007 00:40:11 GMT
To: pythonmac-sig at python.org
Subject: [Pythonmac-SIG] Building Python with X11 Tkinter

>


Chris
my first comment would be that there are plenty of issues here to  
grapple with
>
> On OS X, I'd like to be able to build my own copy of Python that uses
> my own copy of Tkinter (built for X11). I've seen several posts to
> this list where people mention building python this way (e.g. [1] and
> [2] below), but I'm pretty unfamiliar with the concepts, so I wonder
> if someone could give me some more help, or point me to a place where
> there are some instructions?
>
>
> I found the only way I could get Python to build using my own tcl and
> tk was by renaming OS X's Tk and Tcl framework directories so that
> they would not be found.
It is not good to do this because anything else trying to use them  
will not find the originals.
> Is there some alteration I can make to
> python's setup.py instead?
You should be able to specify the non framework tcl and tk to the  
configure script which
you would run before setup.py do
  configure --help used to show it to be something like configure- 
with-tcl=foo configure-with-tk=bar
where foo and bar are the directories with the tcl and tk  
distributions in.
However this no longer holds ....
So whether this is correct  I'm unable to say at present.
This should not be AquaTk which has some deficiencies notably it  
doesn't include Togl or Tix
this precludes the use of a library in the standard linux  
distribution (Tix) and prevents any access
to OpenGL through Tkinter.

You could also consider using a porting framework that way though  
either way you will end up having to wrangle
3 pythons.
the 2.3.x version one shipped with OSX
the 2.5.x Framework install that brought you here and
the X11 2.x.x that you build yourself or install from Mac/Darwinports  
or Fink

This means that you have to be quite careful about tracking where and  
how you install things into the site-packages
directory of each version.
You cannot really run framework builds alongside X11 builds of  
extension libraries for the same python.

If its not heresy on this list I'd suggest getting familiar with the  
Unix  build process on Linux (in a VM sandbox if necessary)
first before (potentially) creating mayhem on your Mac. It will  
reduce the number of variables and simplify the learning
curve before having to deal with what are effectively two different  
environments that coexist under OS X.
That is OS X frameworks with  PyObjC and shared libraries with X11.
>
> I'd like to have Python use X11 rather than Aqua so that I can run
> automated (buildbot) tests of an application (that is based on Python)
> on a virtual (Xvfb) display.
>
I haven't done an X11 build recently but I did do circa 10.1/10.2 and  
it worked fine and I may be doing  it again myself over the next  
couple of weeks.
>
Ed Hartley
PS just seen your latest post IIRC and passing flags is the  
alternative to what I described above and should work unless  
something in the script is
detecting the platform and overriding the options you're passing.
Someone on this list would be able to answer that one I'm sure.

> [1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.apple/12394/
> [2] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.apple/12897/


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