[Python-Dev] Installation on Macs

[Ronald Oussoren]

On 15 Aug, 2012, at 11:30, Ned Deily <nad at acm.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 3. Download instructions and Xcode
> 
> Jesse:
>> I also concur with Raymond that the download/install instructions could be 
>> simplified. Noting for users that rather than downloading Xcode, they can 
>> just download the OSX Command Line Tools installer and easy_install/pip/etc 
>> will just work would also be nice
> 
> The Mac section of the Python docset is woefully out-of-date (from long 
> before I got involved!) and I plan to give it a major update for 3.3.0.  
> The whole business of what's needed to build extension modules on OS X 
> got *much* more complicated with Xcode 4 (the default for 10.7 and 10.8) 
> and each minor release of Xcode 4 has brought new changes.  The 
> introduction of the stand-alone Command Line Tools (with Xcode 4.2?) was 
> a nice addition but there are gotchas with using it, for example, 
> extension building with current Python 3.2.3 installers do not work 
> out-of-the-box with the CLT because the CLT do not provide SDKs.  2.7.3 
> is better but neither of the current 32-bit installers will work out of 
> the box with Xcode 4.   A lot of work has gone into 3.3.0 to make 
> extension building and building Python itself play more nicely with 
> Xcode 4 without breaking support for older versions.  Some subset of 
> that support will get backported for 2.7.4 and 3.2.4 once 3.3.0 is done.
> 
> Also, if network bandwidth and disk space usage are not major concerns, 
> it may now be procedurally easier for most people to install Xcode 4 
> than the Command  Line Tools package since the former is now available 
> for free download from the Mac App Store while the latter still requires 
> registering for a (free) Apple Developer Id and download from the Apple 
> Developer site.  And since Xcode 4 has been partitioned up into smaller 
> downloadable components, the Xcode download is smaller as it is not 
> necessary to download everything (including iOS development tools) as 
> was the case with Xcode 3.

Another advantage of installing all of Xcode is that the appstore will warn when a new version is available, and when you start Xcode you can still install the command-line tools (and Xcode will warn when that installation is out of date).

Ronald

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