132 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
132 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
PYTHON RELEASE NOTES FOR THE MACINTOSH
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VERSION 1.0.2
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For the most part, Python on the Mac works just like Python under UNIX.
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The most important differences are:
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- Since there is no shell environment on the Mac, the start-up file
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has a fixed name: PythonStartup. If a file by this name exists
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(either in the current folder or in the system folder) it is executed
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when an interactive interpreter is started.
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- The default search path for modules is different: first the current
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directory is searched, then the subdirectories 'lib', 'lib:stdwin' and
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'demo'. As always, you can change this (e.g. in your PythonStartup
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file) by assigning or appending to sys.path -- use Macintosh pathnames!
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(The default contains no absolute paths because these are unlikely
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to make sense on other people's hard disks.)
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- The user interface for typing interactive commands is different.
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This is actually the THINK C console I/O module, which is based on
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the Mac toolbox TextEdit. A standard Edit menu provides Cut, Copy,
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Paste and Clear (Undo is only there for Desk Accessories). A minimal
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File menu provides Quit, which immediately exits the application,
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without the usual cleanup. You can Copy from previous output,
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but you can't scroll back beyond the 24x80 screen. The TAB key
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always brings you to the end of the current input line; indentation
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must be entered with spaces (a single space is enough).
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End-of-file is generated by Command-D; Command-Period interrupts.
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There is an annoying limit in the length of an input line to a single
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screen line (less the prompt). Use \ to input long statements.
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Change your program if it requires long lines typed on input.
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Even though there is no resize box, the window can be resized by
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dragging its bottom right corner, but the maximum size is 24x80.
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- Tabs in module files are interpreted as 4 (four!) spaces. This is
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consistent with most Mac editors that I know. For individual files
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you can change the tab size with a comment like
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# vi:set tabsize=8:
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(exactly as shown here, including the colons!). If you are consistent
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in always using tabs for indentation on UNIX, your files will be
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parsed correctly on the Mac, although they may look funny if you
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have nicely lined-up comments or tables using tabs. Never using tabs
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also works. Mixing tabs and spaces to simulate 4-character indentation
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levels is likely to fail.
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- You can start a script from the Finder by selecting the script and
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the Python interpreter together and then double clicking. If you
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make the owner of the script PYTH (the type should always be TEXT)
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Python will be launched if you double click it!
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There is no way to pass command line arguments to Python scripts.
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- The set of built-in modules is different:
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= Operating system functions for the 'os' module is provided by the
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built-in module 'mac', not 'posix'. This doesn't have all the
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functions from posix, for obvious reasons (if you know the Mac
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O/S a little bit). The functions in os.path are provided by
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macpath, they know about Mac pathnames etc.
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= None of the UNIX specific modules ('socket', 'pwd', 'grp' etc.)
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exists.
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= Module 'stdwin' is always available. It uses the Mac version of
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STDWIN, which interfaces directly with the Mac toolbox. The most
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important difference is in the font names; setfont() has a second
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argument specifying the point size and an optional third one
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specifying the variation: a single letter character string,
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'i' for italics, 'b' for bold. Note that when STDWIN is waiting
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for events, the standard File and Edit menus are inactive but
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still visible, and (most annoyingly) the Apple menu is also inactive;
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conversely, menus put up by STDWIN are not active when the Python is
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reading from the keyboard. If you open Python together with a text
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file containing a Python script, the script will be executed and
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a console window is only generated when the script uses standard
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input or output. A script that uses STDWIN exclusively for its I/O
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will have a working Apple menu and no extraneous File/Edit menus.
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(This is because both stdwin and stdio try to initialize the
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windowing environment; whoever gets there first owns the Apple menu.)
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LIMITATIONS: a few recent additions to STDWIN for X11 have not yet
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been added to the Mac version. There are no bitmap objects, and
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the setwinpos() and setwinsize() methods are non--functional.
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- Because launching an application on the Mac is so tedious, you will
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want to edit your program with a desk accessory editor (e.g., Sigma
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edit) and test the changed version without leaving Python. This is
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possible but requires some care. Make sure the program is a module
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file (filename must be a Python identifier followed by '.py'). You
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can then import it when you test it for the first time. There are
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now three possibilities: it contains a syntax error; it gets a runtime
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error (unhandled exception); or it runs OK but gives wrong results.
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(If it gives correct results, you are done testing and don't need
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to read the rest of this paragraph. :-) Note that the following
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is not Mac-specific -- it's just that on UNIX it's easier to restart
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the entire script so it's rarely useful.
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Recovery from a syntax error is easy: edit the file and import it
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again.
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Recovery from wrong output is almost as easy: edit the file and,
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instead of importing it, call the function reload() with the module
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name as argument (e.g., if your module is called foo, type
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"reload(foo)").
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Recovery from an exception is trickier. Once the syntax is correct,
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a 'module' entry is placed in an internal table, and following import
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statements will not re-read the file, even if the module's initialization
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terminated with an error (one reason why this is done is so that
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mutually recursive modules are initialized only once). You must
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therefore force re-reading the module with reload(), however, if this
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happens the first time you try to import the module, the import statement
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itself has not completed, and your workspace does not know the module
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name (even though the internal table of moduesl does!). The trick is
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to first import the module again, then reload it. For instance,
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"import foo; reload(foo)". Because the module object already exists
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internally, the import statement does not attempt to execute the
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module again -- it just places it in your workspace.
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When you edit a module you don't have to worry about the corresponding
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'.pyc' file (a "compiled" version of the module, which loads much faster
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than the textual version): the interpreter notices that the '.py' file
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has changed (because its modification time has changed) and ignores the
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'.pyc' file. When parsing is successful, a new '.pyc' file is written;
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if this fails (no write permission, disk full or whatever) it is
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silently skipped but attempted again the next time the same module
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is loaded. (Thus, if you plan to place a Python library on a read-only
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disk, it is advisable to "warm the cache" by making the disk writable
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and importing all modules once. The standard module 'importall' helps
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in doing this.)
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