python on Mac

[James Stroud]

Thomas Nelson wrote:
> I just purchased a new macbook (os 10.4.6), and I'm trying to install
> python 2.4 on it.  I downloaded and ran the two installers recommended
> at http://www.python.org/download/mac/.  Now I have IDLE, which runs
> 2.4.1, but typing "python" at a terminal still opens 2.3.5, because it
> points to /usr/bin/python.  Is there a way to run python 2.4 without
> idle?  If I want to do a unix style script, something like
> #!/usr/bin/python
> print "hello world"
> what can I put on the first line that will cause python 2.4 to
> interpret my code?
> 
> Thanks a lot.
> THN
> 

The python in /usr/bin is a link (to a link). You can do this:

sudo rm /usr/bin/python
sudo ln -s \
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/bin/python \
    /usr/bin/python


This stupid firebird editor word-wraps (and I don't know how to turn 
this completely annoying behavior off. Appearantly this is because it is 
impossible to soft wrap text on the reader side, annoying NNTP veterans 
everywhere--we just can't count on this hard to program behavior in most 
mail readers because its so impossible to program for. Its been this way 
since reader-client word wrapping was predicted to exist at MIT in the 
1970's.) so get a unix guru to help you with that last command if you 
really don't know what's going on.

James

-- 
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com/