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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
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+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+ <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+ <title>What is MacPython?</title>
+ <meta name="generator" content="BBEdit 6.5.3">
+ <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="pythonsmall.gif">
+ <META NAME="AppleIcon" CONTENT="pythonsmall.gif">
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>What is MacPython?</h1>
+ <table>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <img src="python.gif" width="128" height="128" align="top">
+ </td>
+ <td>
+<p>Python is a programming language. MacPython is a package containing
+that programming language plus Mac-specific tools and extensions.<p>
+
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr>
+
+<h2>The Python Language</h2>
+<p>The Python programming language is available for many hardware
+platforms, and most general documentation is Unix- or Windows-centered. Keep
+this in mind when reading the rest of this help, or information on the web.
+</p>
+
+<p>The Python website, <a href="http://www.python.org">www.python.org</a>,
+has a <em>Beginners Guide</em> section including an
+<a href="http://python.org/doc/essays/blurb.html">executive summary</a> on
+the language and a
+<a href="http://python.org/doc/essays/comparisons.html">comparison</a> of Python
+to other languages.</a> Or read the (rather longwinded) Python
+Tutorial in the <a href="doc/index.html">Python Language and runtime documentation</a>.</p>
+
+<p>MacPython contains a complete <a href="shell.html">unix interpreter</a> so
+if you are familiar with Python on unix you should feel right at home.</p>
+
+<h2>MacPython additions</h2>
+
+<p>The MacPython Integrated Development Environment (IDE) allows
+easy editing, running and debugging of scripts. Read the
+<a href="macpython_ide_tutorial/index.html">Introduction
+to the IDE</a> to whet your appetite.</p>
+
+<p>MacPython comes with lots of modules that allow access to
+MacOS-specific technology, such as Carbon, Quicktime and AppleScript.
+See the <em>Macintosh
+Modules</em> section of the
+<a href="doc/index.html">Python Language and runtime documentation</a>,
+but please keep in mind that some information there still pertains to
+Mac OS 9.
+
+Full access to the Cocoa APIs
+and tools such as Interface Builder is available separately through the
+<a href="packman.html">Package Manager</a>.</p>
+
+<p>The <a href="packman.html">Package Manager</a> also gives you access to extension
+packages for cross-platform GUI development (Tkinter, wxPython, PyOpenGL),
+image processing (PIL), scientific
+computing (Numeric) and much more. <em>PyObjC</em> deserves a special mention: it allows
+transparent access to Cocoa and Interface Builder, similar to what Java provides,
+thereby making Python a first class citizen in the Mac OS X developer world. </p>
+
+<p>Python scripts can be saved as <em>applets</em>, semi-standalone applications
+that work just like a normal application. Additionally you can even create
+true standalone application that have everything embedded and can be
+shipped to anyone, without the need to install Python. You do <em>not</em>
+need to install the Apple Developer Tools for this. </p>
+</body>
+</html>
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+<html>
+<head>
+ <title>One Day of MacPython IDE Toying</title>
+ <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../pythonsmall.gif">
+ <META NAME="AppleIcon" CONTENT="../pythonsmall.gif">
+</head>
+<body bgcolor="#ffffff">
+ <h1>One Day of MacPython IDE Toying</h1>
+ <table>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <img src="IDE.gif">
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ <p>This document gives a very basic introduction to the
+ MacPython Integrated Development Environment on Mac OS. It was
+ written specifically for MacPython 2.3 on Mac OS X, but most of
+ it is applicable to MacPython-OS9 too. It is based on
+ <a href="http://www-hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~dyoo/python/idle_intro/">"One
+ Day of IDLE Toying"</a> by Danny Yoo, which you should read if
+ you want to use the cross-platform IDLE Python development
+ environment.</p>
+
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr>
+ <br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Ok, let's assume that we've already installed Python. (If not, we can
+visit: <a href="http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html">http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html</a>
+or <a href="http://python.org">http://python.org</a>
+and download the most recent Python interpreter. Get the Mac OSX binary
+installer.) The first thing we'd like to do is actually start running it!
+We can do this by opening up the IDE, which should be in Applications
+under the newly-created MacPython program folder: </p><p><img
+src="loading_ide.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>The IDE starts up and shows an interactive window: </p>
+<p><img src="new_ide_window.gif"></p>
+
+<p>If the window does not show up (because you have run the IDE before
+and closed it: it remembers that between runs) open it with the <tt>Windows->Python Interactive</tt>
+menu entry. <p>
+
+<p>This is the interactive window to the IDE, it allows us to enter
+commands directly into Python, and as soon as we enter a command,
+Python will execute it and spit out its result back to us. We'll be
+using this interactive window a lot when we're exploring Python: it's
+very nice because we get back our results immediately. If it helps,
+we can think of it as a very powerful calculator.</p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Let's try something now! As per tradition, let's get Python to say
+the immortal words, "Hello World". <img src="hello_world.gif"
+border=1></p> <p>Those '<tt>>>></tt>' signs act as a prompt
+for us: Python is ready to read in a new command by giving us that
+visual cue. Also, we notice that as we enter commands, Python will
+give us its output immediately.
+</p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Ok, this seems pretty simple enough. Let's try a few more
+commands. If we look below:</p>
+
+<p><img src="simple_commands.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<p>we'll see the result of running a few more commands. Don't worry
+too much about knowing the exact rules for making programs yet: the
+idea is that we can experiment with Python by typing in commands. If
+things don't work, then we can correct the mistake, and try it
+again.</p>
+
+<p>If you got to this point, you now know enough to start playing
+around with Python! Crack open one of the tutorials from the <a
+href="http://python.org/doc/Newbies.html">Python For Beginners</a> web
+page, and start exploring with the interpreter. No time limit here. *grin*</p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Now that we've paddled long enough, we might be asking: ok, this is
+neat, but if we close down Python and start it up again, how do we get
+the computer to remember what we typed?</p>
+
+<p>The solution is a little subtle: we can't directly save what's on
+the interpreter window, because it will include both our commands and
+the system's responses. What we'd like is to make a prepared file,
+with just our own commands, and to be able to save that file as a
+document. When we're in the mood, we can later open that file and
+"run" Python over it, saving us the time of retyping the whole
+thing over again.</p>
+
+<p>Let's try this. First, let's start with a clean slate by opening
+up a new window.</p>
+
+<p><img src="making_new_window.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<p>Here's the result of that menu command:</p>
+
+<p><img src="new_window_made.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<p>We notice that there's nothing in this new window. What this means
+is that this file is purely for our commands: Python won't interject
+with its own responses as we enter the program, that is, not until we
+tell it to. This is called an edit window, and it is very similar
+to edit windows in other editors such as TextEdit or BBEdit.</p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>What we wanted to do before was save some of the stuff we had
+tried out on the interpreter window. Let's do that by typing (or
+copy/pasting) those commands into our Program window.</p>
+<p><img src="entering_in_new_window.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<p>Ok, we're done with copying and pasting.
+One big thing to notice
+is that we're careful to get rid of the "<tt>>>></tt>"
+prompts because there's not really part of our program. The
+interpreter uses them just to tell us that we're in the interpreter,
+but now that we're editing in a separate file, we can remove the
+artifacts that the interpreter introduces.
+I have added
+an extra empty print statement so our output ends with a newline.
+</p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Let's save the file now. The Save command is located under the File menu:
+<p><img src="saving_edited_file.gif" border=1></p>
+
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Now that we've saved the program, how do we run the program? Use the
+Run All button at the top of the editing window, or the equivalent
+menu command <tt>Python->Run Window</tt>. The output will appear in a new
+window called Output Window. </p>
+
+<p>By the way, one thing to notice is that I made a typo: I didn't
+quite copy exactly what I had entered in the interpreter window
+before. Does this affect things?</p>
+
+<p><img src="syntax_error.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<p>Ooops. Here is an example of what Python calls a "syntax error".
+Python sees that we made a typo, and warns us to take a much closer
+look at our program. The designers of Python feel that having the
+system point out the error is better than trying to guess at what the
+programmer meant. Press the Edit button and you will be brought to
+the trouble spot. </p>
+
+<p>Python is often perceptive enough to direct us toward the problem,
+and in this case, it's telling us that we forgot to put something at
+the end of this line. In this case, we need to add an additional
+quotation mark. Let's add that in now.</p>
+
+<p>Other errors, which usually occur later, when your program has
+already done something, result in a different dialog that allows you
+to look at variables and such in addition to only showing you where
+the error occurred. </p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>Ok, let's say that we fixed that silly typo. Let's try to run the
+program again. This gives us a new window, the Output window, showing
+the output of our program:</p>
+<p><img src="output_window.gif" border=1></p>
+
+<hr><br style="page-break-after: always">
+
+<p>As we play with Python, we'll find ourselves "switching modes"
+between the Interpreter window and the Program window. However,
+if we try anything more complicated than two or three lines it
+is often a good idea to work in an edit window, and align
+your edit and output window such that you can see them at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>This is pretty much all we need to know about the MacPython IDE to actually do
+interesting things. There is a lot more to the IDE, here is a quick
+breakdown of things to see and explore:</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li>All sorts of edit commands such as find and replace can be
+ used in the editor windows. See the edit menu.</li>
+
+ <li>The bottom of the edit window has the scrollbar, but at the
+ left are two navigation devices: a line number box that you can also type
+ numbers into to quickly go to a specific place, and a popup menu
+ that lists all classes, functions and methods in your file.</li>
+
+ <li>Above the vertical scrollbar you find another popup menu, this
+ influences how the Run command works. You should try the debugger
+ some time! If you do, and you wonder what the new small column on
+ the left of your script is: you can click in it to make Python stop
+ when it reaches this line so you can inspect things. The profiler
+ is also nifty: it shows you where your program is spending its time.</li>
+
+ <li>The module browser (<tt>Python->Module Browser</tt>) shows you all Python
+ modules currently loaded. You can look at the contents of the module with
+ Browse... and (for modules written in Python) at the source with Source...</li>
+
+ <li>The Package Manager (under the <tt>File</tt> menu, also available as a
+ separate application) allows you to easily install Python extension packages
+ for all sorts of things: scientific computation, image processing,
+ building user interfaces and more. </li>
+
+ <li>The <tt>Help</tt> menu gives you quick access to both the Python documentation,
+ if you have installed it with the Package Manager, and the Apple Developer
+ documentation. </li>
+
+ <li>The <tt>File->Save as Applet</tt> menu command saves your script as a MacOSX
+ application. This allows you to create a script that you can drop files on,
+ and much more. The IDE itself is such an applet, completely written in Python. </li>
+
+</ul>
+</body>
+</html>
projects / thirdparty / Python / cpython.git / commitdiff
