[PyQt] PyQt on OSX Snow Leopard notes

[William Kyngesburye]

On Sep 11, 2009, at 11:05 AM, Phil Thompson wrote:

>> It's not so much a problem of Qt supporting Snow (yes, the mkspec
>> problem, but it seems to be minor), but supporting OSX 64bit, which
>> covers both Leopard AND Snow.  The standard Carbon-based Mac Qt will
>> never be 64bit.  Qt Cocoa is 64bit (I have yet to try it out).
>>
>> And there is now the extra 64bit-ness of Python in Snow now, which
>> causes trouble with Python-based software.  People WILL update to  
>> Snow
>> and WILL (and have already) have problems compiling PyQt.
>>
>> Since Qt Cocoa may take a while to be fully functional and in common
>> use, PtQt at least needs some way to deal with a 64bit Python
>> executable (use the arch command where python/pythonw executed when
>> built for Qt carbon).
>>
>> Note: I just figured out the problem with the arch command.  It's not
>> broken.  There are 2 copies of the python and pythonw executables:  
>> in /
>> usr/bin and in the Python framework.  The /usr/bin exe's are not
>> symlinks to the framework, and have different file sizes.  For some
>> reason the /usr/bin exe's don't work with arch, but the framework
>> exe's do.  /usr/bin/python2.6 and /usr/bin/pythonw2.6 ARE symlinks to
>> the framework.
>
> I'm not convinced this is a PyQt problem - even though it affects PyQt
> users. If you are on a 64 bit system then you would expect to be  
> building
> 64 binaries, ie. 64 bit Qt Cocoa, not 32 Qt Carbon.

Leopard is a 64bit system.  But (probably) because all (except apache)  
of the Apple-built apps are still 32bit, gcc 4.0 compiles 32bit by  
default.  You can still compile for 64bit if you want (and the needed  
components support it - all system libraries and frameworks are 64bit,  
even the python libraries, except the wxpython stuff).

> I assume that when Qt
> "properly" supports Snow Leopard then that would be the default on  
> 64 bit
> systems. In which case the standard build process, and pyuic, will  
> continue
> to work.
>
> The current problems seem to be due to Qt being slow to support Snow
> Leopard, or maybe just slow to make Cocoa the default. I don't think  
> PyQt
> should be expected to work around this temporary situation. I'd  
> change my
> mind if you were to say that the Cocoa support was flakey and people  
> will
> be sticking with Qt Carbon for some time to come.
>

Qt Cocoa is valid on Leopard (32 & 64bit).  While the system Python  
executable is not 64bit, eventually the python.org Python should be.   
And Qt Carbon on Snow is also just as valid, and will probably be  
supported (when it's official) for a long time (at least the lifetime  
of Leopard), even when Qt Cocoa is standard.


-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

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