[Pythonmac-SIG] What does it take to run a GUI app?

[Chris Barker]

Folks,

Over on the list for the Anaconda distribution, we've run into a limitation
in our understanding of the whole app bundle, etc business.

The problem is thus:

Anaconda is currently built with the old python / pythonw dichotomy.

python is a standard unix-style executable -- great for command line apps,
web servers, what have you. But you get the dreaded:

"""
This program needs access to the screen.
Please run with a Framework build of python, and only when you are
logged in on the main display of your Mac.
"""

when you try to run a GUI app (this error message from wxPython)

pythonw, on the other hand, is a shell script that re-directs to a python
that is inside a hand-built application bundle:

#!/bin/bash
export
PYTHONEXECUTABLE=/Users/chris.barker/PythonStuff/Anaconda/anaconda/bin/python
/Users/chris.barker/PythonStuff/Anaconda/anaconda/python.app/Contents/MacOS/python
$@

This all sort-of works. But it's a pain, because you may not know when you
start up an app, whether it needs to access the Window manger (like
iPython, for instance). And now I need to put "pythonw" in my #! lines,
which may fail on other *nix systems, and...

One thought is to simply have "python" be the same shell script as
"pythonw" but there is concern that having it be a re-directing shell
script may cause problems for some use cases.

I know that this has been solved for years in the python.org installer. So
how is that done?

Anaconda doesn't seem to want to make their python a proper framework build
-- don't know why not -- would there be any downside? But is it possible to
build the python executable so it can access the GUI system without
structuring their whole python install?

Thanks,
  -Chris


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

Emergency Response Division
NOAA/NOS/OR&R            (206) 526-6959   voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception

Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pythonmac-sig/attachments/20140822/2c7d06fa/attachment.html>