ssl error with the python mac binary

[Ned Deily]

In article 
<CACgdh2igu5JEeHEO4EVA6=TiqqvosX1z_CuQ=Ti5Axbf=LcVyQ at mail.gmail.com>,
 Paul Wiseman <poalman at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm currently using the installer with py2app to make a distributable
> app that targets 10.5+ (including ppc). To save having more than one
> build I use this for all downloads. Although I'm starting to consider
> making a second 32/64 distributable. Are there many major drawbacks
> for distributing this i386/ppc binary for all versions of OSX up 10.9
> and 10.10?

For a standalone app, not really.  The main difference is that, by using 
the older 10.5 ABI, a few functions in the os module are not available 
(if they were implemented first in OS X 10.6 or later) and/or they may 
work a little differently.  AFAIK, the most impactful difference, by 
far, is the OpenSSL version difference you have run into.  Up to now, I 
don't recall any compatibility problems with 10.5 ABI programs running 
on later versions of OS X or, for the most part, mixing extension 
modules compiled to later ABIs with a 10.5 Python, although there might 
be issues with mixing versions of C++ modules (Python and its standard 
library do not use C++ themselves).  But, of course, there's no 
guarantee that something won't break in a future release of OS X.  So 
far, so good.

> That's great news! Thanks for this! I've always found building things
> on mac a huge pain and wasn't much looking forward to the prospect of
> trying to build a 32/ppc python build on a 64 bit 10.10 machine (would
> that even be possible?).

It's possible: I do it.  But I cheat a bit: I have 10.5 running in a 
virtual machine on a 10.10 host.  In theory, it's possible to build 
natively on 10.10.  The trick is getting a version of Xcode 3 installed 
on 10.10 since support for building ppc archs was removed in Xcode 4.  I 
also cheat a bit there: I happen to still have copies of Xcode 3.1.4 and 
3.2.6 installed on 10.10 because I made sure to preserve them through 
upgrades from 10.6 days.  IIRC, directly installing the necessary 
components from 3.2.6 on newer systems would require some hacking.  Then 
you have to be really vigilant that the build never strays from the old 
SDK and tools, which is not something we claim to support at the moment.  
The VM approach is quite safe and reliable.

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org