Installing 2.6 on a Mac

[Ned Deily]

In article <a06240802c61849e0047c@[192.168.1.100]>,
 Greg Reyna <greyna at socal.rr.com> wrote:
> I want to install Python 2.6 on a dual 1.42 GHz MacG4 tower running 
> OS 10.5.6.  The Python installer wants to create the Python.framework 
> directory in "/Library/Frameworks" but it can't because there's an 
> alias of the same name in there.  On this machine, Python 2.5.1 is 
> installed in 
> "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5"
> 
> The "Versions" folder has within it folders for "2.3","2.5", and 
> "Current" (the latter is an alias to the 2.5 folder)
> 
> FYI: In the /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework folder are 
> aliases to Resources, CodeResorces, and the Python program itself. 
> These all point to the 2.5 folder.
> 
> So, my question is, can I move the alias out of 
> "/Library/Frameworks", let the installer do its thing, then move the 
> newly installed files into "/System/Library/Frameworks/" so 
> everything will be together?  Naturally, I would follow the odd way 
> everything is currently installed by creating a 2.6 directory.  After 
> that, I will exchange all the aliases so they point at the new 2.6 
> directory, as well as creating a new alias for "/Library/Frameworks".
> 
> I'm new at this so I wanted to check with someone who knows what 
> they're doing.  I always heard we're not supposed to mess with the 
> System/Library, but I guess this is an exception.

No, it's not an exception; your first instinct is correct to not mess 
with /System/Library.  The python there is supplied by Apple as part of 
OS X.   python.org installers install to /Library/Frameworks/Python.  If 
you downloaded a python.org installer for 2.6.x, there shouldn't be any 
problems installing to /Library/Frameworks/Python as long as you have 
admin permission.  There can be multiple python versions installed in 
/Library/Frameworks.  For more info see for example:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.apple/15600

If you are still having problems, I suggest bringing the specific errors 
to the pythonmac sig forum:
  http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
or
  http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.apple

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org