[Pythonmac-SIG] Framework Installation Strategy, Package Manager?

[Samuel M. Smith]

Only 8 packages show up in python install manager for macpython 2.4.
Is this because nobody has time to maintain the database or has  
support gone away from the package manager because
nobody liked it?

Why isn't package manager being used for all the packages on http:// 
pythonmac.org/packages/ and http://undefined.org/python/#python?


In general if I build a package from source and use framework python  
2.4.1, then setup.py will do the right thing?
Or are there extra tricks that I have to worry about.

I was attracted to Bob's set of apple installer packages but have  
gotten bitten a couple of times because not
the latest version etc. I am trying to figure out what my python  
installation and maintenance strategy should be.

I have used Python mainly for cgi scripts and network utilities and  
only needed the standard library. But now I have a project where I  
plan to use it for a scientific
research project that needs the graphics plotting etc. This requires  
more than the stock python. I also plan to write
a gui app interface using the mac toolbox so I concluded that i  
should be using the framework build.

But it seems that there is a lot of extra work to get all the  
scientific tools running under framework build.

Anybody have any suggestions why or why not persist with framework.  
Apparently some people have built all these tools
on framework build, I just can't find any updated documentation on  
the process.

Anybody want to share their configuration and why?