(MAC) CoreGraphics module???

[Robert Kern]

David C. Ullrich wrote:
> On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:39:20 -0500, Robert Kern
> <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> David C. Ullrich wrote:
>>> [why doesn't CoreGraphics work?]
>> That's different than the one that is referenced. The one those articles
>> reference is only available in the Python that came with the system in
>> /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework, not one that you might have
>> installed from www.python.org into /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework. The
>> module was made by Apple, and they have not released the source code, so it
>> cannot be made to work with the www.python.org distribution.
> 
> usenet is amazing - your reply appears to have been
> posted a half hour before my question! Thanks.
> 
> So CoreGraphics is a builtin in Apple-Python,
> explaining why I didn't find the relevant
> CoreGraphics.py anywhere on the hard drive, eh?

Okay, which version of OS X do you have? In 10.3 and 10.4 it used to be here:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/plat-mac/CoreGraphics.py

I notice that in 10.5, it no longer exists, though.

> Fine. Now what? Please feel free to bear in mind
> that I have very little experience with the Mac
> and with Unix - I'm certain that if I knew what
> I was doing there I wouldn't need to ask the
> questions below, sorry. And sorry about the length
> of this post - there's a second issue that maybe
> you could explain, that I'd really love to have
> an explanation for before modifying things. Anyway:
> 
> Since I didn't do anything special to remove it
> when I installed the Python-Python, the Apple-Python
> should still be there, yes?

Yes, in the location I mentioned.

> I'd appreciate any
> advice on how to get things set up the way I'd
> like. Below when I refer to the MacPython stuff
> I mean ApplicationLauncher (or however it's spelled,
> the Mac's at the office and I'm at home) and Idle;
> the stuff that gives convenient access to Python
> scripts in the GUI.
> 
> Note that I don't have any particular reason to
> want to use the latest version of Python - I was
> actually getting along fine with 1.5 until very
> recently. I'd be perfectly happy to set things
> up so everything used the Apple-Python. (i) If I
> just uninstalled the Python-Python (how?) would
> everything (Terminal, the MacPython stuff)
> automagically find the Apple-Python instead?
> (ii) If not, what would I have to do to make
> things use the Apple-Python instead? (And if
> I have to do something to make that happen,
> would doing that still work if I just left
> the Python-Python sitting there?)

Python-Python installed a couple of symlinks into /usr/local/bin and then put
/usr/local/bin in the front of your $PATH environment variable so it gets picked
up first on the terminal. For my Python-Python 2.5, I have

  python
  python2.5
  pythonw
  pythonw2.5
  python-config
  python2.5-config

Remove these and then when you type "python" at the terminal, you will get
/usr/bin/python, which points to the Apple-Python.

> OR: Is there something special I could do with
> CoreGraphics scripts and/or how I invoke them
> so that _they_ would use the Apple-Python while
> other scripts would just use the Python-Python
> as now?

For scripts executed from the terminal, you could start them with a hash-bang line:

  #!/usr/bin/python

Use "chmod u+x" on the script, and then you can execute it like any other
program from the terminal.

> (A last choice would be a setup where most
> scripts work as they do now and I somehow
> make CoreGraphics work from Terminal but
> not in Finder...)
> 
> (Hmm, a wild guess: something somewhere is an
> alias to Python-Python, and I just change that
> (how?) to an alias to Apple-Python?)
> 
> I'm a little nervous about making any changes,
> because something very mysterious happened when
> I was setting things up the way they are now -
> since I have no idea what I did to make things
> work the way they are now I don't know that
> I could set things up the way they are now
> again if I had to. If you can explain the
> following that will be something (I've been
> meaning to ask about the following sometime,
> hasn't been important til now when I'm
> contemplating changing the setup):
> 
> The history: I get a Mac. I discover that it
> includes Python, can't figure out how to
> execute .py files in Finder. I hear about
> MacPython.
> 
> I install the "small" MacPython download, that's
> supposed to just add ApplicationLauncher(?),
> Idle, etc on top of the existing Python.
> Works fine _except_ that when I double-click
> a .py file in Finder it executes with the
> cwd equal to the root directory instead of
> the directory where the script is located.
> 
> Trying to fix that I install the "full"
> MacPython, including Python itself. Doesn't
> help, scripts still execute in "/".
> 
> A few weeks later I decide to try to fix that.
> The plan is to edit whatever.py, the script
> that's supposed to run before everything else
> allowing customizations (always takes me a
> while to find the magic name in the docs -
> probably you know the name I mean). The plan
> is to extract the directory I want from
> sys.argv and then chdir.
> 
> And here's the mysterious part: The day I
> plan on modifying whatever.py I find the
> problem has fixed itself! When I double-
> click .py files they execute in the right
> directory.
> 
> If you asked what I was smoking I wouldn't blame
> you. (Not that I really think that's it, but
> the _only_ thing I can imagine I did that
> could have led to the change was that perhaps
> I hadn't yet tried out Idle when things were
> executing in the wrong directory, and somehow
> the first time I ran Idle it fixed something
> for me.)
> 
> Anyway. You have any idea what was going on there,
> and/or any idea about what to do to fix that
> problem if it appears again?

I'm afraid I don't. I don't use ApplicationLauncher.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco