[Pythonmac-SIG] Let's get upgrade instructions right

[rob]

Short version:  OS 10.3 (pre 3.9) users are being officially and  
wrongly advised to install a 10.4-and-later package that breaks their  
stock Python

Long version:
The Python on the Mac download page
	(http://www.python.org/download/mac/)
correctly recognizes the under-the-hood kinship of OSX 10.3.9 with  
10.4, giving one upgrade link for those versions.  It  also seems to  
recognize the differences between them on the one hand and pre-10.3.9  
versions of 10.3 on the other, when it covers the "Panther" case in a  
separate paragraph.  It suggests a two step installation process  
beginning with TclTkAqua, followed by a different link to an updated  
Python (Universal-MacPython-2.4.3-2006-04-07.dmg)

The PROBLEM seems to be that this is bad advice.  I followed it with my  
10.3.7 system and got a (classic, as it turned out) error:

dyld:  
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/Resources/Python.app/ 
Contents/MacOS/Python can't open library: /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib   
(No such file or directory, errno = 2)
Trace/BPT trap

It seems libstdc++.6.dylib was never a part of the earlier OS releases,  
and the lack of it is apparently the classic manifestation of  
application version incompatibility across the surprisingly wide divide  
circa-10.4.  In other words, the offered 2.4.3 release (not so much  
python itself, I guess, as a couple of Mac apps associated with this  
package) seems to have a "10.4 or later" requirement.

Shouldn't the community act promptly to fix this problem (or at least  
stamp out this frustrating, time-wasting misinformation?)  Anyone know  
who to call?

-Robert





* (don't you hate those cat names; I can never keep them straight  
without a scorecard).