ActiveState Community

There are three popular Python distributions for Mac OS X.

There is the pre-installed distribution that ships as /usr/bin/python and has its frameworks in /System/Library/Frameworks.

There is also MacPython, the Python distribution from the macpython.org guys (and
pointed to by python.org). This is a 3rd-party Python distro. This installs as
/usr/local/bin/python with its frameworks in /Library/Frameworks.

Then there is ActivePython, our distribution. This also installs as /usr/local/bin/python with its frameworks in /Library/Frameworks -- the same location as MacPython. When ActivePython is being installed the installer will look for MacPython and prompt to move it out of the way, rather than overwrite it. Because of the way Mac OS X works you can only have one of MacPython or ActivePython as the "current" python at a time.

The ActivePython install notes show how to uninstall ActivePython:

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/docs/ActivePython/2.4/installnotes.html#osxpkg_uninstall

Note that this will not restore the MacPython install (it is still
there, just moved to the side). That same "pydistro.py" script used to
uninstall also has the ability to restore the MacPython install, but it
is a little bit of a chicken and egg problem because uninstall
ActivePython will uninstall "pydistro.py".

Solution:

- copy pydistro.py to a safe place (say ~/tmp), then run this to
uninstall ActivePython

sudo /usr/bin/python pydistro.py activepython_uninstall 2.4

- then this to restore MacPython
sudo /usr/bin/python pydistro.py macpython_restore 2.4

That should work, but isn't too heavily tested.

OR:

Just re-install MacPython from its original installer package.

The first version of ActivePython to be built natively for Intel Macs was ActivePython 2.4.2.10. Versions before this version were built specifically for PowerPC-based Macs. It may be possible to run the PowerPC version on the Intel Macs, taking advantage of the PowerPC emulation layer in OS X; however, this tends to be quite slow. Therefore, we recommend only using the Intel-specific builds of ActivePython 2.4.2.10 or higher on an Intel Mac.

For each build of ActivePython 2.4.2.10 and higher there are two files. One file specifies macosx-powerpc, and is of course the build for PowerPC-based Mac OS X systems. The other file specifies macosx-x86, and is the correct package to install on your Intel Mac.

You can get past versions of ActiveState products from our ftp server:

ftp://ftp.activestate.com/

You can also access the ftp repository via the web at:

http://ftp.activestate.com/

This can be useful if you are behind a firewall that does not allow ftp.

The Export Control Classification Number for ActivePython is EAR99 (self-classified). For a brief description of EAR99 and information on the difference between EAR99 and NLR (No License Required), see:

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/faq/reg/reg0031.html

Here is an answer on python-list while discussing the differences between ActivePython and python.org's Python:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-December/315754.html

As Neil pointed out, ActivePython does not currently have SSL
bindings (the _ssl module) that python.org's Python builds do. We
are currently going through the legal hurdles so that we can
include those. I expect that by or before the Python 2.5
timeframe we'll have _ssl in ActivePython.

In the meantime just plopping in the _ssl.pyd or _ssl.so from either python.org's build or from your own build into ActivePython's lib-dynload directory will work to get ActivePython talking SSL.

If you've used a Python.org build of Python before starting to use ActivePython, you may have grown fond of the command history and editing provided by the use of libreadline. Where Python.org Python gives you the last line you entered when you hit up-arrow, ActivePython gives you ^[[A.

We are working on solutions to this, but in the meantime you can get a very friendly front-end to the Python shell via Komodo. If Komodo is overkill for what you need, consider Pyrepl, which gives you only a more pleasant front-end, rather than a whole IDE. Pyrepl is not an ActiveState product so we can't provide support for it, but it may be what you want if you want to keep it simple.

By using the versions of Visual Studio that we do (VS6 for Python 2.3, VS7 for Python 2.4), we keep binary compatibility with extensions for the Python.org distribution of the language. Our choice of build environment will continue to follow the lead of the community to ensure this compatibility remains.

There was a thread on the Python-Dev mailing list about switching build environments to VS2005. After some back-and-forth, this message told at least part of the story why it's not going to happen right now.

I would imagine that we will keep following the lead of the Python.org community to make sure we are compatible, and that binary extensions will continue to be useful for everyone.