On Feb 9, 2006, at 12:09 PM, Rodney Somerstein wrote: > At 8:29 PM -0800 2/8/06, Bill Janssen wrote: >> I've made up a sample page, at >> http://bill.janssen.org/new-macpython-page.html. >> >> This is the kind of thing I'd like to see replace the page at >> http://www.python.org/download/download_mac.html. > > Bill, > > As the sort of somewhat sophisticated novice python developer (how is > that for a contradiction of terms?) that you folks seem to be > targeting, I really like this page. It could use a little bit of > cleaning up, such as possibly describing why to use IDLE, how using a > newer version of Python can help the user, etc. It is a great start. > > I look forward to seeing something as straightforward as this > replacing the current page. > > Now, what I really want to see added is something that explains how I > can write a program in Python on the Mac and create standalone > applications that can run on someone else's computer without them > having to install anything else. The descriptions of packaging for > Python that I have read here are fairly arcane and not at all > straightforward for new developers. As much as I like the general > idea of Python, this is the one thing that seems to make the language > not ready for end-user applications. > > It might seem that this isn't Mac specific. But, since the packaging > of Python apps on the Mac seems to be different than on other > platforms, having a link to it from the main page would be a useful > thing. It could certainly be far down the page rather than right at > the beginning. Even better would be a discussion of how to move such > apps to other operating systems as well. Python may be more elegant > than Java, but I can easily give someone a Java app to run on their > computer. I'm not confident I could do this for much beyond > helloworld with Python and expect it to run since there wouldn't > likely be the libraries that I need.
py2app is the solution for application packaging, and you must use it with a third party Python installation (e.g. Python 2.4.1) in order to come up with something that's redistributable and robust. If you happen to use the system Python, then you will produce a package that only runs on the particular release of Mac OS X that you build it with. In other words, when you or your users upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5, any system-Python built application bundle will cease to function at all. It is actually not much different than on other platforms. Many py2exe-based setup scripts work identically with py2app if you change the import statement. Mac-specific features of course require Mac- specific solutions, but the standard stuff is identical. There is some minimal documentation: http://undefined.org/python/ py2app.html Any other questions you have can probably be answered by py2exe documentation and/or this list. -bob _______________________________________________ Pythonmac-SIG maillist - Pythonmac-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
