[Pythonmac-SIG] Pythonmac-SIG Digest, Vol 76, Issue 4

[Christopher Barker]

Brendan Simon (eTRIX) wrote:
>> If you want to create a standalone app, you must install a standard
>> python (and the necessary modules), as you can't distribute Apple's.
> 
> Really ?!?   I think you may be serious !!!

Well, it's certainly true that py2app is designed that way. In any case, 
if you want something that can really act as a stand-alone, you don't 
want it to be built with a Python that only works on 10.5.


>  If it's true it is close to
> unbelievable.  Isn't python "free" as a general rule ???
> This is a stinky thing that MS would do !!!

Apple has done no shortage of such "stinky things" they are NOT an 
open-source company by any means.

> The "copyright" statement doesn't mention anything about Apple.

Python itself, and the standard library, are not copyrighted by Apple. 
However, that doesn't mean that you can re-distribute an Apple-built 
binary. Aside from that, Apple has added a couple modules that they do 
hold the copyright on. I suspect that when py2app was designed, it was 
decided to simply avoid any possible licensing issues.

There are plenty of other reasons to use the python.org build anyway.

-Chris



-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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