Reinstall python 2.3 on OSX 10.3.5?

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <1107388080.703032.116150 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
 moa at extrapolation.com wrote:

>Hi there
>
>I started a very long and roundabout process of attempting to install
>python 2.3.4 along side my apple-installed 2.3 system. To make a long
>story short, I have completely confabulated my environment ( i deleted
>the 2.3 binaries and so forth from the system in an attempt to start
>things fresh), and now I cannot figure out how to reinstall the base
>2.3 Apple python distribution.
>Can somebody please point me in the right direction?

Archive and Install of the operating system is the safest.

But if you have some kind a backup or know somebody with a similar Mac, 
you could try reinstalling /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework. 
You'd have to do this in a way that preserved ownership and permissions.
That would probably still leave a few unresolved symbolic links and/or 
aliases lying around, but is worth a try (especially if you can examine 
that system and see where the links go). In particular 
"/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/s
ite-packages" points to "/Library/Python/2.3" and /usr/bin/python and 
/usr/bin/pythonw point somewhere useful.

But...archive and install is really the safest and it's a chance to 
clean up a bit of cruft. (But it messes with /usr/local and your web 
site, so back all that up first).

-- Russell

P.S. I installed a separate unix/x11 Python 2.4 in /usr/local with no 
problem using the default install process. However, I wanted X11 Tk 
support for that, so I first:
- moved the aqua Tk (in /Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework, and 
Tcl.framework) so the installers could not find them
- installed unix/x11 tcl and tk (again using the default install process)
This results in a perfectly workable python that uses the X11 Tk stuff.

It's a minor headache having two pythons -- every package has to be 
installed twice if you want it available in both pythons.