[Pythonmac-SIG] Lion

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <B26BA0B9-804D-402E-8AF5-C9D9FA94AE93 at mac.com>,
 Ronald Oussoren <ronaldoussoren at mac.com> wrote:

> On 21 Jul, 2011, at 2:27, Ned Deily wrote:
> 
> > In article <C3F76EDA-E6CD-4F97-8ABF-A770F5A4C6A4 at rosspixelworks.com>,
> > Dan Ross <dan at rosspixelworks.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> Installing python.org's framework should work shouldn't it?
> > 
> > The 64-bit/32-bin python.org installers (current releases are 3.2.1 and 
> > 2.7.2) *should* work on 10.7 Lion.  I'm not so sure about the 
> > traditional 32-bit-only ones (the 10.3+ ones). As with 10.6, I expect 
> > you will need to install ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.5 if you want to use 
> > Tkinter or IDLE as there have been some recent fixes for Cocoa Tk.   I 
> > just have completed downloading the official 10.7 release and should 
> > have some preliminary results posted by tomorrow.
> 
> Both should work, but only the 64-bit/32-bit installer is truly useful:  the 
> xcode version for Lion is from the 4.x series and that no longer supports 
> building PPC extensions, hence the Python installed by the 32-bit installer 
> cannot build new extensions.

Ouch. I've been using the 32-bit (10.3) versions so I can build apps 
that run on MacOS X 10.5 and later (10.4 as well, but I have no 
requirement for that).

It sounds like the only ways to do that now are:
- Compile Python from source, plus all packages I use (numpy, 
matplotlib, PIL...)
- Use the 32-bit version of Python and never, ever build an extension on 
10.7.
- Try to use an older XCode on 10.7. I doubt that would work properly, 
if at all.
- Stay with 10.6 or at least keep it around for building apps to 
distribute.

I suspect it'll be at least 6 months and probably closer to a year 
before I can abandon 10.5 users.

It'd be nice to have a python.org python that at least supported 
10.5-10.7 (the 64 bit version required 10.6 and later, I believe due to 
limitations in Apple's Tck/Tk). It sounds as if it would ditch PPC 
support and either be 32-bit or else require a 3rd party Tck/Tk such as 
ActiveState's offering.

-- Russell