[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Russell E Owen]

At 5:26 PM -0400 2006-09-25, davelist at mac.com wrote:
>I'm very interested in this and would be happy to help with testing. 
>I teach Python at the college level using John Zelle's Python book 
>(it uses Tk for simple GUI programs). Most of the programs run fine, 
>but some of the more complex ones crash intermittently within Tk. 
>The same program seems to run fine on Windows using 2.4.3 although 
>it does crash intermittently on CentOS 4.3 within Tk.
>
>In the meantime, are you saying the simplest solution for my 
>students with Macs is to use ActiveState (some have G4 laptops and 
>some have Intel based laptops)?
>
>I have a G5 running 10.3.9 at work (IT isn't planning to upgrade 
>yet) and a G5 running 10.4.x at home so I'll be happy to test on 
>both of those.

If it's bugs in Tcl/Tk that are causing the crashes then by all means 
I would try:
- Install ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.4.11 or 8.4.13.
- Install MacPython (it's better than the one from Apple, plus you're 
about to modify python, and you shouldn't modify anything in /System)
- Modify _tkinter.so according to Bob Ippolito's recipe. At the command line:

install_name_tool \
      -change /System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.4/Tcl \
              /Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.4/Tcl \
      -change /System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.4/Tk \
              /Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.4/Tk \
 
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload/_tkinter.so

The above command should be six lines long; you'll probably have to 
unwrap at least the last line.

An alternative is to install ActiveState Python instead of MacPython, 
because it works with ActiveState Tcl/Tk "out of the box". But it 
doesn't include readline. You can add readline, but I think it's 
easier to fix _tkinter.so.

-- Russell