Which Python in Panther?

[gsdali]

The pre-installed version of python in Panther is 2.3 making it compatible with a lot of the latest python libraries and programmes like Nicotine.

So here are the questions

Do I now not need the fink installed version of Python (it seems a waste to have something installed twice)?

How should I go about re pointing dependencies at the Panther version of Python?

Should I just wait for the fink people to come up with a system-Python virtual package?

Thanks in advance.

[sao]

gsdali,

Apple has added a number of new open source pacakges with each major release of OS X. But keep in mind that sometimes the system versions lack important pieces. Like python on "Jaguar", which was missing the headers, so you couldn't build anything against it.

From what I know, fink's philosophy till now, has been to keep providing a fink version of the package, even after Apple is providing their own. Probably, they don't trust Apple to be consistent in what they provide, like for example, when they used to provide wget, which fink relied on, and then at a certain point they switched to curl.

Many users will already have the "fink" version of the library linked in to their packages, and upgrading becomes pretty tricky if they were to try to revert to Apple's version.

Generally, I tend to follow Fink on this, as Apple is not always good about keeping packages "current", and fink does that more frequently. Personally, I like to follow the old adage "if it isn't broken don't fix it".

I would wait a bit maybe they come up with a 'system-python' virtual package. Right now in my installation I have the following virtual-packages installed:

[pm @ Sao: ~] % fink-virtual-pkgs
Package: system-java14
Status: install ok installed
Version: 1.4.1-1
description: [virtual package representing Java 1.4.1]

Package: darwin
Status: install ok installed
Version: 7.0.0-1
description: [virtual package representing the kernel]

Package: system-java13-dev
Status: install ok installed
Version: 1.3.1-1
description: [virtual package representing Java 1.3.1 development headers]

Package: system-java14-dev
Status: install ok installed
Version: 1.4.1-1
description: [virtual package representing Java 1.4.1 development headers]

Package: system-perl
Status: install ok installed
Version: 5.8.1-1
description: [virtual package representing perl]
provides: perl581-core

Package: system-java13
Status: install ok installed
Version: 1.3.1-1
description: [virtual package representing Java 1.3.1]

Package: macosx
Status: install ok installed
Version: 10.3-1
description: [virtual package representing the system]

Package: system-xfree86
Status: install ok installed
Version: 2:4.3-1
description: [placeholder for user installed x11]
provides: x11, x11-shlibs, libgl, libgl-shlibs, xft2, xft1-shlibs, 
xft2-shlibs, rman, fontconfig1, fontconfig1-shlibs

FWIW, here is a list of a number of packages that are provided by Fink and are already included with the default install of 10.3 (Some were in Jaguar as well):

Quote: AutoConf AutoMake M4 Bash Tcsh Zsh Emacs21 VIM Gzip libiconv Ncurses Tar libxml2 openssl postfix Perl python23 tcl (but not tk) X11 and freetype2