[Pythonmac-SIG] Python development on OSX

[Christopher Barker]

On 1/20/11 4:51 PM, Adam Morris wrote:
> I want one programming language that lets me solve my real
> problems.

> That to me, is what Python embodies.

yup -- it is applicable to a VERY wide range of problems.

> But I'm still confused on some major points on what it offers.

>  I use Xcode and Cocoa-Python, and
>> IMO it works great.  Is that using py2app "under the covers"?  This
>> is another reason not to install a non-system Python; it sometimes
>> screws up apps built using Xcode and Python.
>
> I'm trying really hard to unpack this. I can't use XCode and the
> py-objc bridge with my "installed" python 2.7 setup? (Installed isn't
> quite the right word, I know.) Why not? I guess it's because something
> is hard-coded somewhere ...
>
> I don't particularly "need" XCode but I really want to understand this.

You can certainly use pyObjC without XCode. I've never tried to do 
python development in XCode, from the little I've read here it never 
seemed to be well supported. Maybe someone here can tell you how to use 
XCode / pyObjC for app development.

Note that Apple has added a couple proprietary bits to its python 
install, maybe XCode relies on those.

I would love to hear more about what you can and can't do with XCode.

Note that if XCode has a way to build a self-contained App, and it uses 
Apple's system python, you are going to either get something that won't 
work on older systems, or you are going to be using an older python. You 
can't re-distribute Apple's python.

Also -- Apple has NEVER upgraded a python it delivered. Most of the bugs 
fixed between X.1 and X.5 versions of python are unlikely to bite you, 
but I had at least one that did -- when I found it, it had been fixed in 
the python.org release, but not in Apples -- and Apple has still not 
fixed it -- so I don't know what I'd have done if I'd be confined to 
Apple's python. Yes, I'm confined to Apple's OS - but at least they do 
update that!


And Bill's right -- if you want to support other platforms, wxPython or 
pyQT is the way to go. (pyGTK is so non-native on the Mac I wouldn't 
consider it, and I don't think pyGUI is very mature yet)

(the binaries for wxPython work with both the Apple and python.org 
builds -- 32 bit only for the moment)

-Chris


-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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