[reportlab-users] Problems installing Reportlab

[Bill Janssen]

Bill Janssen <janssen at parc.com> wrote:


> Christopher Brewster <cbrewster at gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> > It is 2.6 downloaded from Python.org

> > I thought that is what one is supposed to do (use the latest version

> > ....)

> 

> My experience with Python on Macs is that it's almost always trouble to

> install a different version of Python than the system comes with.  You

> can do it if you know what happens, but otherwise strange and mystifying

> things will happen to your system (my systems, at any rate).


By the way, I build and install various Pythons (2.6, 2.7, 3.1) from
source on my Mac all the time, too, without any trouble.  The trick is
to use --disable-framework --disable-toolbox-glue, so that the install
scripts don't try to mess with your system.  If you're not developing
Cocoa apps with Python, that will work fine for you.  Unfortunately, the
standard MacPython installer from python.org is a mongo installer that
tries to do everything.  And it does pretty well, but unfortunately the
Apple defaults for some things like linker search order interact with it
badly.

Bill