| How to install Python 1.6a1 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. |
| |
| Caveats |
| ------- |
| This is an alfa version, and for this once it really means that: there |
| are quite a few features that have only lightly been tested, and bugs are |
| to be expected. |
| |
| Aside from the general Python 1.6 features like unicode support the |
| main new features of this MacPython release is support for multithreading. |
| This has not been tested very well. |
| |
| This installer installs MacPython for PowerPC only, whether a 68K distribution |
| of Python 1.6 will happen is not certain at the moment. There is no Tkinter |
| in this installer. |
| |
| All references to 68k, cfm68k and Tkinter in this document and in the |
| installer should be ignored: it really isn't there. |
| |
| 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. If you have an older system than MacOS 8 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 and builtin to the system since MacOS 8). If your machine is |
| pre-68020 you cannot use cfm68k and you can install the classic 68k |
| Python. |
| |
| After the installer finishes it automatically launches the |
| ConfigurePython applet, to finish configuration of your Python |
| installation (except for classic 68K installations, where no extra |
| configuration is needed). |
| |
| 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 |
| ---------------- |
| |
| The first step thing you could try is to run "compileall.py" to create |
| all .pyc files, but this isn't very important, as pyc files are |
| created on-the-fly as well. You may also want to skip this step if you |
| are low on diskspace. |
| |
| Next, it is probably a good idea to run the automatic tests. Start |
| Python and "import test.autotest". This should not print any |
| errors. It will, however, print some messages about optional features |
| not supported. Also, if you didn't run compileall before autotesting |
| you may run out of memory the first time you run the |
| tests. test_socket may also fail if you have no internet |
| connection. Please also read the Relnotes file for other minor |
| problems with this distribution. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| If you have a slow machine you may want to disable automatic site.py import |
| since site.py does not do too much on the mac (unless you make it do |
| something), and it can take a few seconds. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| Uninstalling |
| ------------ |
| |
| Two items are installed in the system folder: the interpreter shared |
| library "PythonCore 1.5.2b1" lives in the Extensions folder and the |
| "Python 1.5.2b1 Preferences" file in the Preferences folder. All the rest |
| of Python lives in the folder you installed in. |
| |
| 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 is included, but without documentation. You can find docs at |
| ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/jack/python/img (or somewhere around there). |
| |
| Finally there is a Mac:Contrib folder which contains some contributed |
| software, including a Real Programming Environment and some AppleScript |
| related modules. |
| |
| 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 1.5.2b1 works as expected you can trash |
| anything in the system folder that has "python" in the name and not |
| "1.5.2b1". |
| |
| 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: mindvision@mindvision.com |
| http://www.mindvision.com |
| |
| Just van Rossum <just@letterror.nl> created the installer. |
| |
| Feedback |
| -------- |
| |
| Send bug reports, suggestions, contributions and fanmail to |
| <jack@cwi.nl>. However, a better way to discuss MacPython is to join the |
| <pythonmac-sig@python.org> mailing list, which is explicitly meant for |
| this purpose. |
| |
| Alternatively, you can try sending to comp.lang.python or |
| python-list@cwi.nl, 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 |
| |
| <jack@cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack |