Getting up and running with Python on a Mac

[Steve Lianoglou]

> I want to do a fair bit of scientific /
> numerical computing, so it would seem that SAGE ot the Enthought
> Python distribution would seem to be the most relevant  - I'd
> appreciate your guidance on getting Python to run on a Mac with a
> particular focus on these two distributions.

As already mentioned, you can use the already installed Python that
comes with Leopard (2.5.1), or you can download the latest from
python.org (2.5.2).

Either way, another way do get a scientific environment up and running
is by getting the "Scipy Superpack" installer. It's a frontend that
downloads and installs the latest scipy/numpy/matplotlib/ipython combo
(from their SVN repos). The author updates the builds every so often,
so you can for the most part run with the latest updates:

http://macinscience.org/?page_id=6

If you're using the Python that comes with Leopard, it will be very
straightforward and you'll have nothing else to do aside from running
the Superpack installer.

If you want to use the latest Python from Python.org, there will be
some trickery, which includes:

(i) getting the correct (newer) python to come first in your path,
(ii) installing setuptools for the new python
(iii) insuring that the new setuptools easy_install is "the one" in
your path
(iv) install the latest OS X wxPython build (from their website).

It's all fairly straightforward once you account for the
aforementioned gotchas.

As far as the enthought installer goes, I wasn't aware that it was
ready for showtime on OS X ... do you know otherwise?

HTH,
-steve