1 2 .. _using-on-mac: 3 4 *************************** 5 Using Python on a Macintosh 6 *************************** 7 8 :Author: Bob Savage <bobsavage (a] mac.com> 9 10 11 Python on a Macintosh running Mac OS X is in principle very similar to Python on 12 any other Unix platform, but there are a number of additional features such as 13 the IDE and the Package Manager that are worth pointing out. 14 15 The Mac-specific modules are documented in :ref:`mac-specific-services`. 16 17 Python on Mac OS 9 or earlier can be quite different from Python on Unix or 18 Windows, but is beyond the scope of this manual, as that platform is no longer 19 supported, starting with Python 2.4. See http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython for 20 installers for the latest 2.3 release for Mac OS 9 and related documentation. 21 22 23 .. _getting-osx: 24 25 Getting and Installing MacPython 26 ================================ 27 28 Mac OS X 10.8 comes with Python 2.7 pre-installed by Apple. If you wish, you 29 are invited to install the most recent version of Python from the Python website 30 (https://www.python.org). A current "universal binary" build of Python, which 31 runs natively on the Mac's new Intel and legacy PPC CPU's, is available there. 32 33 What you get after installing is a number of things: 34 35 * A :file:`MacPython 2.7` folder in your :file:`Applications` folder. In here 36 you find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of official 37 Python distributions; PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Python 38 scripts from the Finder; and the "Build Applet" tool, which allows you to 39 package Python scripts as standalone applications on your system. 40 41 * A framework :file:`/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework`, which includes the 42 Python executable and libraries. The installer adds this location to your shell 43 path. To uninstall MacPython, you can simply remove these three things. A 44 symlink to the Python executable is placed in /usr/local/bin/. 45 46 The Apple-provided build of Python is installed in 47 :file:`/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework` and :file:`/usr/bin/python`, 48 respectively. You should never modify or delete these, as they are 49 Apple-controlled and are used by Apple- or third-party software. Remember that 50 if you choose to install a newer Python version from python.org, you will have 51 two different but functional Python installations on your computer, so it will 52 be important that your paths and usages are consistent with what you want to do. 53 54 IDLE includes a help menu that allows you to access Python documentation. If you 55 are completely new to Python you should start reading the tutorial introduction 56 in that document. 57 58 If you are familiar with Python on other Unix platforms you should read the 59 section on running Python scripts from the Unix shell. 60 61 62 How to run a Python script 63 -------------------------- 64 65 Your best way to get started with Python on Mac OS X is through the IDLE 66 integrated development environment, see section :ref:`ide` and use the Help menu 67 when the IDE is running. 68 69 If you want to run Python scripts from the Terminal window command line or from 70 the Finder you first need an editor to create your script. Mac OS X comes with a 71 number of standard Unix command line editors, :program:`vim` and 72 :program:`emacs` among them. If you want a more Mac-like editor, 73 :program:`BBEdit` or :program:`TextWrangler` from Bare Bones Software (see 74 http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html) are good choices, as is 75 :program:`TextMate` (see https://macromates.com/). Other editors include 76 :program:`Gvim` (http://macvim.org) and :program:`Aquamacs` 77 (http://aquamacs.org/). 78 79 To run your script from the Terminal window you must make sure that 80 :file:`/usr/local/bin` is in your shell search path. 81 82 To run your script from the Finder you have two options: 83 84 * Drag it to :program:`PythonLauncher` 85 86 * Select :program:`PythonLauncher` as the default application to open your 87 script (or any .py script) through the finder Info window and double-click it. 88 :program:`PythonLauncher` has various preferences to control how your script is 89 launched. Option-dragging allows you to change these for one invocation, or use 90 its Preferences menu to change things globally. 91 92 93 .. _osx-gui-scripts: 94 95 Running scripts with a GUI 96 -------------------------- 97 98 With older versions of Python, there is one Mac OS X quirk that you need to be 99 aware of: programs that talk to the Aqua window manager (in other words, 100 anything that has a GUI) need to be run in a special way. Use :program:`pythonw` 101 instead of :program:`python` to start such scripts. 102 103 With Python 2.7, you can use either :program:`python` or :program:`pythonw`. 104 105 106 Configuration 107 ------------- 108 109 Python on OS X honors all standard Unix environment variables such as 110 :envvar:`PYTHONPATH`, but setting these variables for programs started from the 111 Finder is non-standard as the Finder does not read your :file:`.profile` or 112 :file:`.cshrc` at startup. You need to create a file 113 :file:`~/.MacOSX/environment.plist`. See Apple's Technical Document QA1067 for 114 details. 115 116 For more information on installation Python packages in MacPython, see section 117 :ref:`mac-package-manager`. 118 119 120 .. _ide: 121 122 The IDE 123 ======= 124 125 MacPython ships with the standard IDLE development environment. A good 126 introduction to using IDLE can be found at 127 https://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~dyoo/python/idle_intro/index.html. 128 129 130 .. _mac-package-manager: 131 132 Installing Additional Python Packages 133 ===================================== 134 135 There are several methods to install additional Python packages: 136 137 * Packages can be installed via the standard Python distutils mode (``python 138 setup.py install``). 139 140 * Many packages can also be installed via the :program:`setuptools` extension 141 or :program:`pip` wrapper, see https://pip.pypa.io/. 142 143 144 GUI Programming on the Mac 145 ========================== 146 147 There are several options for building GUI applications on the Mac with Python. 148 149 *PyObjC* is a Python binding to Apple's Objective-C/Cocoa framework, which is 150 the foundation of most modern Mac development. Information on PyObjC is 151 available from https://pythonhosted.org/pyobjc/. 152 153 The standard Python GUI toolkit is :mod:`Tkinter`, based on the cross-platform 154 Tk toolkit (https://www.tcl.tk). An Aqua-native version of Tk is bundled with OS 155 X by Apple, and the latest version can be downloaded and installed from 156 https://www.activestate.com; it can also be built from source. 157 158 *wxPython* is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively on 159 Mac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from http://www.wxpython.org. 160 161 *PyQt* is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively on Mac 162 OS X. More information can be found at 163 https://riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/intro. 164 165 166 Distributing Python Applications on the Mac 167 =========================================== 168 169 The "Build Applet" tool that is placed in the MacPython 2.7 folder is fine for 170 packaging small Python scripts on your own machine to run as a standard Mac 171 application. This tool, however, is not robust enough to distribute Python 172 applications to other users. 173 174 The standard tool for deploying standalone Python applications on the Mac is 175 :program:`py2app`. More information on installing and using py2app can be found 176 at http://undefined.org/python/#py2app. 177 178 179 Other Resources 180 =============== 181 182 The MacPython mailing list is an excellent support resource for Python users and 183 developers on the Mac: 184 185 https://www.python.org/community/sigs/current/pythonmac-sig/ 186 187 Another useful resource is the MacPython wiki: 188 189 https://wiki.python.org/moin/MacPython 190 191
