/Mac/README
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- ============
- MacOSX Notes
- ============
- This document provides a quick overview of some Mac OS X specific features in
- the Python distribution.
- Mac-specific arguments to configure
- ===================================
- * ``--enable-framework``
- If this argument is specified the build will create a Python.framework rather
- than a traditional Unix install. See the section
- _`Building and using a framework-based Python on Mac OS X` for more
- information on frameworks.
- * ``--with-framework-name=NAME``
- Specify the name for the python framework, defaults to ``Python``. This option
- is only valid when ``--enable-framework`` is specified.
- * ``--enable-universalsdk[=PATH]``
- Create a universal binary build of of Python. This can be used with both
- regular and framework builds.
- The optional argument specifies with OSX SDK should be used to perform the
- build. This defaults to ``/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.10.4u.sdk``, specify
- ``/`` when building on a 10.5 system, especially when building 64-bit code.
- See the section _`Building and using a universal binary of Python on Mac OS X`
- for more information.
- * ``--with-univeral-archs=VALUE``
- Specify the kind of universal binary that should be created. This option is
- only valid when ``--enable-universalsdk`` is specified.
-
- Building and using a universal binary of Python on Mac OS X
- ===========================================================
- 1. What is a universal binary
- -----------------------------
- A universal binary build of Python contains object code for both PPC and i386
- and can therefore run at native speed on both classic powerpc based macs and
- the newer intel based macs.
- 2. How do I build a universal binary
- ------------------------------------
- You can enable universal binaries by specifying the "--enable-universalsdk"
- flag to configure::
- $ ./configure --enable-universalsdk
- $ make
- $ make install
- This flag can be used a framework build of python, but also with a classic
- unix build. Either way you will have to build python on Mac OS X 10.4 (or later)
- with Xcode 2.1 (or later). You also have to install the 10.4u SDK when
- installing Xcode.
- The option ``--enable-universalsdk`` has an optional argument to specify an
- SDK, which defaults to the 10.4u SDK. When you build on OSX 10.5 or later
- you can use the system headers instead of an SDK::
- $ ./configure --enable-universalsdk=/
- 2.1 Flavours of universal binaries
- ..................................
- It is possible to build a number of flavours of the universal binary build,
- the default is a 32-bit only binary (i386 and ppc). The flavour can be
- specified using the option ``--with-universal-archs=VALUE``. The following
- values are available:
- * ``32-bit``: ``ppc``, ``i386``
- * ``64-bit``: ``ppc64``, ``x86_64``
- * ``all``: ``ppc``, ``ppc64``, ``i386``, ``x86_64``
- * ``3-way``: ``ppc``, ``i386`` and ``x86_64``
- * ``intel``: ``i386``, ``x86_64``
- To build a universal binary that includes a 64-bit architecture you must build
- on a system running OSX 10.5 or later. The ``all`` flavour can only be build on
- OSX 10.5.
- Building and using a framework-based Python on Mac OS X.
- ========================================================
- 1. Why would I want a framework Python instead of a normal static Python?
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The main reason is because you want to create GUI programs in Python. With the
- exception of X11/XDarwin-based GUI toolkits all GUI programs need to be run
- from a fullblown MacOSX application (a ".app" bundle).
- While it is technically possible to create a .app without using frameworks you
- will have to do the work yourself if you really want this.
- A second reason for using frameworks is that they put Python-related items in
- only two places: "/Library/Framework/Python.framework" and
- "/Applications/MacPython 2.6". This simplifies matters for users installing
- Python from a binary distribution if they want to get rid of it again. Moreover,
- due to the way frameworks work a user without admin privileges can install a
- binary distribution in his or her home directory without recompilation.
- 2. How does a framework Python differ from a normal static Python?
- ------------------------------------------------------------------
- In everyday use there is no difference, except that things are stored in
- a different place. If you look in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework
- you will see lots of relative symlinks, see the Apple documentation for
- details. If you are used to a normal unix Python file layout go down to
- Versions/Current and you will see the familiar bin and lib directories.
- 3. Do I need extra packages?
- ----------------------------
- Yes, probably. If you want Tkinter support you need to get the OSX AquaTk
- distribution, this is installed by default on Mac OS X 10.4 or later. If
- you want wxPython you need to get that. If you want Cocoa you need to get
- PyObjC.
- 4. How do I build a framework Python?
- -------------------------------------
- This directory contains a Makefile that will create a couple of python-related
- applications (fullblown OSX .app applications, that is) in
- "/Applications/MacPython 2.6", and a hidden helper application Python.app
- inside the Python.framework, and unix tools "python" and "pythonw" into
- /usr/local/bin. In addition it has a target "installmacsubtree" that installs
- the relevant portions of the Mac subtree into the Python.framework.
- It is normally invoked indirectly through the main Makefile, as the last step
- in the sequence::
- $ ./configure --enable-framework
- $ make
- $ make install
- This sequence will put the framework in /Library/Framework/Python.framework,
- the applications in "/Applications/MacPython 2.6" and the unix tools in
- /usr/local/bin.
- It is possible to select a different name for the framework using the configure
- option ``--with-framework-name=NAME``. This makes it possible to have several
- parallel installs of a Python framework.
- Installing in another place, for instance $HOME/Library/Frameworks if you have
- no admin privileges on your machine, has only been tested very lightly. This
- can be done by configuring with --enable-framework=$HOME/Library/Frameworks.
- The other two directories, "/Applications/MacPython-2.6" and /usr/local/bin,
- will then also be deposited in $HOME. This is sub-optimal for the unix tools,
- which you would want in $HOME/bin, but there is no easy way to fix this right
- now.
- What do all these programs do?
- ===============================
- "IDLE.app" is an integrated development environment for Python: editor,
- debugger, etc.
- "PythonLauncher.app" is a helper application that will handle things when you
- double-click a .py, .pyc or .pyw file. For the first two it creates a Terminal
- window and runs the scripts with the normal command-line Python. For the
- latter it runs the script in the Python.app interpreter so the script can do
- GUI-things. Keep the "alt" key depressed while dragging or double-clicking a
- script to set runtime options. These options can be set once and for all
- through PythonLauncher's preferences dialog.
- "BuildApplet.app" creates an applet from a Python script. Drop the script on it
- and out comes a full-featured MacOS application. There is much more to this,
- to be supplied later. Some useful (but outdated) info can be found in
- Mac/Demo.
- The commandline scripts /usr/local/bin/python and pythonw can be used to run
- non-GUI and GUI python scripts from the command line, respectively.
- How do I create a binary distribution?
- ======================================
- Go to the directory "Mac/OSX/BuildScript". There you'll find a script
- "build-installer.py" that does all the work. This will download and build
- a number of 3th-party libaries, configures and builds a framework Python,
- installs it, creates the installer pacakge files and then packs this in a
- DMG image.
- The script will build a universal binary, you'll therefore have to run this
- script on Mac OS X 10.4 or later and with Xcode 2.1 or later installed.
- All of this is normally done completely isolated in /tmp/_py, so it does not
- use your normal build directory nor does it install into /.
- Because of the way the script locates the files it needs you have to run it
- from within the BuildScript directory. The script accepts a number of
- command-line arguments, run it with --help for more information.
- Odds and ends
- =============
- Something to take note of is that the ".rsrc" files in the distribution are
- not actually resource files, they're AppleSingle encoded resource files. The
- macresource module and the Mac/OSX/Makefile cater for this, and create
- ".rsrc.df.rsrc" files on the fly that are normal datafork-based resource
- files.
- Jack Jansen, Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl, 15-Jul-2004.
- Ronald Oussoren, RonaldOussoren@mac.com, 26-May-2006