Getting and Installing MacPython Mac OS X 10.8 comes with Python 2.7 pre-installed by Apple. If you wish, you are invited to install the most recent version of Python 3 from the Python website (). A current “universal binary” build of Python, which runs natively on the Mac’s new Intel and legacy PPC CPU’s, is available there. What you get after installing is a number of things: • A MacPython 3.6 folder in your Applications folder. In here you find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of official Python distributions; PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Python scripts from the Finder; and the “Build Applet” tool, which allows you to package Python scripts as standalone applications on your system.

• A framework /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework, which includes the Python executable and libraries. The installer adds this location to your shell path. To uninstall MacPython, you can simply remove these three things. A symlink to the Python executable is placed in /usr/local/bin/. The Apple-provided build of Python is installed in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework and /usr/bin/python, respectively. You should never modify or delete these, as they are Apple-controlled and are used by Apple- or third-party software.

Remember that if you choose to install a newer Python version from python.org, you will have two different but functional Python installations on your computer, so it will be important that your paths and usages are consistent with what you want to do. IDLE includes a help menu that allows you to access Python documentation.

If you are completely new to Python you should start reading the tutorial introduction in that document. If you are familiar with Python on other Unix platforms you should read the section on running Python scripts from the Unix shell. How to run a Python script Your best way to get started with Python on Mac OS X is through the IDLE integrated development environment, see section and use the Help menu when the IDE is running. If you want to run Python scripts from the Terminal window command line or from the Finder you first need an editor to create your script. Mac OS X comes with a number of standard Unix command line editors, vim and emacs among them.

If you want a more Mac-like editor, BBEdit or TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software (see ) are good choices, as is TextMate (see ). Other editors include Gvim () and Aquamacs (). To run your script from the Terminal window you must make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your shell search path. To run your script from the Finder you have two options: • Drag it to PythonLauncher • Select PythonLauncher as the default application to open your script (or any.py script) through the finder Info window and double-click it.

PythonLauncher has various preferences to control how your script is launched. Option-dragging allows you to change these for one invocation, or use its Preferences menu to change things globally. GUI Programming on the Mac There are several options for building GUI applications on the Mac with Python.

PyObjC is a Python binding to Apple’s Objective-C/Cocoa framework, which is the foundation of most modern Mac development. Information on PyObjC is available from. The standard Python GUI toolkit is, based on the cross-platform Tk toolkit (). An Aqua-native version of Tk is bundled with OS X by Apple, and the latest version can be downloaded and installed from; it can also be built from source. WxPython is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively on Mac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from.

Recent Packages Popular Packages Python 3 Authors Imports The PyPM repository is no longer actively maintained and will be going offline permanently on November 1, 2018. Please update any references in your tools or code before that time. This short tutorial will show you how to properly install Python 3 on a Mac OS X computer. There are multiple ways to install Python 3, including a download from the official Python site, however I strongly recommend instead using a package manager like Homebrew to manage all your dependencies going forward. It will make your life a lot simpler.