[Pythonmac-SIG] Communicating With Apple

[Nick Matsakis]

On Sat, 12 Apr 2003, Bob Ippolito wrote:

> I'd make it easy for the user who is compiling Python 2.3 to decide
> whether they want /System/Library/Python or not.  Whoever maintains
> Python for Apple would probably appreciate this, because that's their
> style, and we can all cross our fingers and hope that 2.3 will be
> compiled and distributed PROPERLY with OS X 10.3.X or 10.4.

It seem to me that this is much, much too important of an issue to just
hope Apple gets right.  I've already asked on this list: "_Why_ did Apple
include Python with 10.2?" and it seems that no one knew the answer. I
think this is a vital question and that now is the time to address it, not
after Panther comes out.

The reason to ask "why?" is that the answer provides a sense of where
Apple is coming from.  If Python was included simply as a part of Darwin,
then there is no reason to expect that Pather will include anything more
than a vanilla-unix Python installation since Darwin does not include the
carbon frameworks or other "Mac" libraries.  If it is included as a "Mac
OS X" feature, then it is important to ensure that they provide a stable
version where the Macpython extensions work as expected.  In either case,
communication with Apple at this point is important.

Is anyone in a position to answer these questions?  Or, is anyone who
is going to WWDC willing to bring up these issues?

Nick Matsakis