Python 3.4.1 installer on Mac links Python to old Tcl/Tk

[Ned Deily]

In article <m0gps5$4r5$1 at ger.gmane.org>,
 "Peter Tomcsanyi" <tomcsanyi at slovanet.sk> wrote:
> "Ned Deily" <nad at acm.org> wrote in message 
> news:nad-D2DDCB.14070824062014 at news.gmane.org...
> It's October...
> So I tried Python 3.4.2rc1 and it seems that it still links to Tk 8.5 on 
> Mac.
> Does it mean that there is no plan to link to Tk 8.6 in Python 3.4.2 on Mac?
> Or is there something that can override 8.5 to 8.6 as you wrote?

The python.org 3.4.x series of installers will likely never change from 
linking with Tk 8.5 by default.  That would break a number of important 
third-party Python packages that supply binary distributions built for 
the python.org OS X pythons, like matplotlib.  For Python 3.5, we will 
have the opportunity to change that.  

> In the meantime I tried MacPorts. It has Tk 8.6.1 so rotating text work 
> well, but it has still a problem with semi-transparency as described here:
> http://core.tcl.tk/tk/tktview?name=99b84e49ff
> It has been fixed in Tk 8.6.2 that is already published for nearly a month, 
> but there seems to be no uypdate on macports yet...

File an update request for the tcl and tk ports on the MacPorts tracker.  
The project is usually very responsive to such requests.

https://trac.macports.org

Note that ActiveState hasn't yet released their versions of 8.6.2.

> So I am quite frustrated that I am not able to make my Python installation 
> on Mac do the same things (namely roatting text and use png files that have 
> semi-transparent pixels) both on Windows and Mac.

As Kevin Walzer points out, you *can* also build your own.  I still 
intend to provide a downloadable solution for 3.4.x and 2.7.x; I hope to 
get back to it shortly.  Sorry for the delay!

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org