[Pythonmac-SIG] Why Do I Explicitly Need MacPython

[Bob Ippolito]

On 9/25/06, Russell E Owen <rowen at cesmail.net> wrote:
> 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.

Note that the command is actually just one line long, with a bunch of
line continuations (the backslashes at the end of the first 5 lines).
The shell doesn't care either way, but it is just one command.

-bob