[Pythonmac-SIG] Let's do it completely different!

[Lance E Sloan]

--On Thursday, October 24, 2002 12:27 -0400 "Schollnick, Benjamin" 
<Benjamin.Schollnick@usa.xerox.com> wrote:
> 	But, the major issue that I see is, do we continue to distribute a
> 	different python version than is included with v10.2.x, or do we
> 	patch Apple's version to extend it.

I've been lurking for a while and this is (one of) my first post(s) to this 
list.  (Can't remember if I posted a question about building Python 2.2 and 
2.3aX here or not.)  I don't want to start/prolong a flamewar, but just 
give my 0.02 USD.

I've been a UNIX user and a Mac user for years.  MOSX is a dream come true 
for me, although I wish there were some MOS9 features that hadn't been 
dropped along the way.  I think a couple days ago somebody on this list 
wrote there probably aren't many UNIX people who'd switch to MOSX.  Maybe 
there aren't many, but I am one of them and I know of a few others just in 
my department at the Univ. of Michigan.

I've been developing CGIs with Python for about two years.  All my programs 
begin with a shebang (#!).  When I do need to write a GUI app., I use 
Tkinter.  When I add new modules, I just drop them in a convenient place in 
my home directory and adjust sys.path.  I often use the interpreter 
interactively and find the readline/rlcompleter combo to be indispensible.

As a person who loves my MOSX, I'm looking forward to writing Python apps 
that use the native Mac GUI.  At the same time, I expect all my UNIX habits 
to work just the same.  In other words, I expect all the things I have with 
Python under other UNIXes to work and there should be a lot of additional 
MOSX support, too.  I'd want to be able to use Tkinter whether my program 
is running from a Terminal window or a Mac IDE.

I think it would be wrong to change how Python behaves when it runs under 
MOSX.  I may have misunderstood, but I think that's what some people on 
this list have been suggesting.  I wouldn't want there to be a separate 
MacPython, at least not for MOSX.  (I can appreciate that it might be 
necessary to support MOS9 and older versions, though.)  I would expect to 
be able to download a .tar file from python.org, run configure, build it, 
and it would work regardless of whether I'm using MOSX or some other UNIX.

I apologize if I'm rattling on and on, being redundant.  Basically, I want 
to have my cake and eat it, too.  (It should only require another instance 
of Cake, right? :)  I really do hope that folks from Apple are reading this 
mailing list, especially this thread.

--
Lance E Sloan
Web Services, Univ. of Michigan: Full-service Web and database design,
development, and hosting.  Specializing in Python & Perl CGIs.
http://websvcs.itd.umich.edu/ - "Putting U on the Web"