How to install Python 1.5a3 on your Macintosh

-------------------------------------------

If this is your first encounter with Python: you definitely need the

common user documentation (common to all platforms). You can find this

(in various forms) on www.python.org and ftp.python.org. Through

there, or via http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html you can also find

the most recent MacPython distribution.

Mac-specific documentation is included in this distribution in folder

Mac:Demo. The documentation is sparse, but it will have to serve for

now. The documentation is in HTML format, start with index.html.

What to install

---------------

There are three flavors of Python: PowerPC, cfm68k and Classic 68k (the

FAT flavor is just a combination of the first two, which is handy if you

want to install Python on a fileserver or so). 68K-mac owners should

definitely use the cfm68k version if possible, since it enables the use

of applets and dynamically loaded modules and usually has a smaller

memory footprint. It does however need the CFM68K Runtime Enabler which

is available from Apple (available for free from

<http://support.info.apple.com/ftp/swhome.html>, included since MacOS

7.6.1). If your machine is pre-68020 you cannot use cfm68k and you can

install the classic 68k Python.

If you have a pre-system 7 macintosh: sorry, this release will not work

on your system. Too many sys7 features are used to make a sys6 python

easy to create.

If you don't have enough memory: the sizes choosen are somewhat

arbitrary. Try lowering the application sizes in the finder "get info"

window, and seeing whether the resulting python is still usable. Some

modules (Tkinter comes to mind) need a lot of memory, so it may also be

necessary to increase the application size.

A final note to CFM68K (and possibly PPC) users: the Code Fragment

Manager can (incorrectly) produce "library not found" and other strange

error messages when it really means that there is not enough room in the

system heap. Decreasing (yes, *de*creasing) the size of the interpreter

and/or enabling virtual memory may solve these problems.

After installing

----------------

It is probably a good idea to run "autotest.py" from :Lib:test at this

point, this should not give any errors. It will, however, print some

messages about optional features not supported. Running testall.py is

done by double-clicking it or dropping it onto the interpreter.

NOTE: as of 1.5a3 the tests test_time, test_strftime and test_rotor will

fail. This is due to a problem with the tests. test_socket may also fail

if you have no internet connection.

Next, try "compileall.py" from :Lib to create all .pyc files (but this

isn't really important).

PPC and CFM68K users have a couple of applets in the main folder they

may want to try, (68K users can use the corresponding scripts from the

"scripts" folder):

- EditPythonPrefs allows you to edit the preferences file, to change the

python home folder or modify the initial sys.path setting. The default

settings are somewhat arbitrary, you can remove tkinter if you don't use

it and possibly add Extensions:img:Lib. - mkapplet creates a python

applet, a tiny application written in python. Drop a python source on it

and out comes the application. More information can be found in the

"Mac:Demo" folder.

PPC and CFM68K users will see one more file in the python folder:

PythonApplet. This is the template for building applets, leave it alone.

The applet is "fat", containing both PPC and CFM68K code. Hence, applets

built with it can be transported to machines with the other

architecture.

Things to see

-------------

There are some readme files in the "Read me files" folder that may

contain useful information. There is also a first stab at documentation

(plus examples) in the Mac:Demo folder. The toplevel Demo folder has

machine-independent demos. See the file Readme-mac for mac-specific

notes. The Mac:Lib:test folder also has some programs that show simple

capabilities of various modules.

The "scripts" folder has some sample scripts. Some are useful, some are

just interesting to look at to see how various things work. The MkDistr,

mkapplet and fullbuild scripts (plus the ones mentioned above) may help

you to understand how to use AppleEvents and various other toolboxes

from python.

The 'img' group of modules, which handles I/O of many different image

formats (not pict yet, sigh:-) is included, but without documentation.

You can find docs at ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/jack/python/img (or somewhere

around there).

Upgrading from older Python releases

------------------------------------

Since release 1.4 Python releases are independent of each other, with

separate Preferences files, shared library names, etc. The good news is

that this means you can keep your older version around if you are unsure

whether to upgrade. The bad news is that your old preference settings

are lost and you have to set them again.

After you are satisfied that 1.5a3 works as expected you can trash

anything in the system folder that has "python" in the name and not

"1.5a3".

The installer

-------------

The installer for this product was created using Installer VISE Lite

from MindVision Software. For more information on Installer VISE Lite,

contact:

MindVision Software

7201 North 7th Street

Lincoln, NE 68521-8913

Voice: 402-477-3269

Fax: 402-477-1395

Internet: [email protected]

http://www.mindvision.com

Feedback

--------

Send bug reports, suggestions, contributions and fanmail to

<[email protected]>. Be warned however that I'm pretty busy, so I may not

always respond immedeately.

A better way to discuss MacPython is to join the

<[email protected]> mailing list, which is explicitly meant for

this purpose.

Alternatively, you can try sending to comp.lang.python or

[email protected], but since I read the newsgroup, not the mailinglist,

I may miss it there (but other people may know quite a bit more than me

anyway:-).

Jack Jansen

Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica

Kruislaan 413

1098 SJ Amsterdam

the Netherlands

<[email protected]>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack