[Pythonmac-SIG] Which version to use??

[Christopher Barker]

Rodney Somerstein wrote:
>> If you care about the Mac (particularly in terms of being able to use
>> PyObjC and/or py2app), stick with 2.x for now.  Otherwise, it doesn't
>> matter much which exact version of 3.x you use.
> 
> This brings up a question for me as to what the state of Python is on 
> the Mac. Python 3.x has been a available for quite awhile. I see on 
> Python.org that 3.1.2 is listed as the current download for the Mac. 
> What exactly is the current state of this? What doesn't work on the Mac 
> in Python 3 and what are current plans related to this?

Honestly, I don't know if the Mac is in any poorer position with regard 
to Python 3 as any other platform.

NONE of the major packages I use have been ported to Py3 on any 
platform: numpy, SciPy, wxPython. Many of those are well supported on 
the Mac, so I don't think there will be any issues there.

> The Mac Python community seems pretty small.

There are a LOT of folks using Python on teh Mac -- the community that 
is pretty small is the community of folks doing mac-specific stuff -- 
PyObjC, for instance. It getting to be that the the fradction of 
development that is done for desktop apps is pretty small -- and that 
that is done is often done with cross-platfrom tools.

The only folks that care about py2app are folks doing desktop 
development and the only folks that care about PyObjC are folks doing 
desktop development for Mac-only applications.

If that is what you want to do, then you are right, the community is 
pretty small -- is there a larger one built around an open-source 
dynamic language? I have no idea.

> Given that Python seems to 
> position itself as a major programming and scripting language, it seems 
> rather strange that there is so little effort placed into providing 
> first class support for the second most popular computing platform.

It does have first class support for scripting, command line stuff, web 
app development, etc -- one reason the there are so many more users of 
Python on the Mac than there are folks on this list is that all that 
stuff "just works".

-Chris


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