[Pythonmac-SIG] Tkinter app in Mac App Store

[Kevin Walzer]

Hi all,

I'm just writing to mention that I've had a Tkinter app approved in the 
Mac App Store, QuickWho (http://www.codebykevin.com/quickwho.html). I'm 
pretty sure it's not the first Python app included in the App Store (I 
believe there are a few PyObjC apps there), but there has been little 
discussion of the App Store on this list, so I wanted to share a few 
experiences, in case anyone is planning to submit a Tkinter-based 
program to the App Store.

Most of my challenges revolved around the fact that Tk-Cocoa uses 
numerous calls into private methods and API's (or SPI, I guess), and so 
you can't bundle the Tcl/Tk frameworks with your application. The 
workaround for this is to link your application to the Tcl/Tk Cocoa 
frameworks that are bundled with OS X in /System/Library. As has been 
well-documented, this build of Tk is rather buggy, so proceed with caution.

Using this approach requires a custom build of Python that links to the 
frameworks in /System/Library rather than in /Library; the simplest way 
to make sure of this is to move other installations of Tcl/Tk in 
/Library/Frameworks to another location.

I outline some details about this in more depth here: 
http://www.codebykevin.com/opensource/app-store.html. This article 
doesn't mention Python (it focuses instead on Tk), but most of it is 
applicable, and can be supplemented by what I've outlined in this e-mail.

Hope others find this useful,
Kevin

-- 
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com