You'll recall that I reported crashes with the macpython.org matplotlib package. This turned out to be because I was using my own Tcl/Tk (a good version instead of the version installed with 10.4).
It turns out PIL has a similar but more subtle problem. It works for me, but if I use py2app to bundle an application that uses PIL, it fails one some users machines. Building a new PIL locally fixes the problem, of course. This is another plea for the _tkinter.so that comes with the standard macpython to be set up to look for a Tcl/Tk first in /Library/Frameworks, then in /System/Library/Frameworks. I think the packages would have just worked fine with that change (though i've not ripped out my Tcl/Tk to prove that). The current situation is nasty: - Any serious Tcl/Tk/Tkinter user will install a better version of Tcl/Tk on MacOS X. - MacPython needs a simple modification to support it: <http://www.astro.washington.edu/rowen/PythonOnMacOSX.html> - But this modification breaks matplotlib and PIL, and perhaps any python package installed with a binary installer built on an unmodified MacPython. Ouch. I know there is talk of including a Tcl/Tk with Python like Windows does. I hope we don't do that because, based on my experience with Tcl/Tk on Mac, unix and Windows, the Windows solution is the worst of the lot: - It makes upgrading tcl/tk harder. Serious users of Tcl/Tk want this to get useful bug fixes (no package that large is perfect). - It makes installing tcl/tk additions harder (for example I use the snack sound library). On Windows it's not easy to figure out where to put these extensions, nor is it easy to test them! Modifying _tkinter.so is trivial and it does the job. If it was part of the standard MacPython distro then the problem with broken extensions would probably be solved. If proof of that assertion would tip the balance, I'm willing to do more leg work on it. -- Russell _______________________________________________ Pythonmac-SIG maillist - Pythonmac-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
