Copyright 2006 Dean Hall. All rights reserved.
Overcoming Newbie Hurdles when using PyObjC, Xcode and Interface Builder
Python is a great fit for the Macintosh. It's an elegant language for an elegant computer. I tip my hat to the guys who made the PyObjC bridge, for it springs the doors wide open to what you can do with Python on a Mac.
This page includes links to obtaining and installing PyObjC and other useful tools. This is followed by step-by-step instructions that will help anyone just starting PyObjC get over those first set of hurdles.
The intended audience for this document is a Python programmer who have installed PyObjC, but didn't quite make it through the introductory tutorial included in the distribution. I, for one, wasn't too familiar with Interface Builder. This document assumes you already know how to program in Python, know your way around a Mac and have admin priviledges. You should also have experience with programming using an IDE and have read Apple's documentation for Xcode and Interface Builder. For more background reading, try StartCocoa, a collection of PyObjC and Cocoa information sources.
This document assumes that you are running Mac OS X 10.4 and have installed the designated versions of the following software:
Test that things installed properly. Open a Terminal, start an interactive Python session from the command line. Check in the opening credits that it's the 2.4.3 version that is running. If it is not the version you installed, set the path to your version so it is early on in your PATH environment variable. For me, this meant adding the following line to ~/.cshrc (your shell may vary):
setenv PATH "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/bin:"$PATH
If you had to change your shell configuration file, be sure the OS knows about the change. Either logout and login (boo!) OR run a command equivalent to the following (your shell may vary):
% source ~/.cshrc
Now, to check that PyObjC installed correctly, type the following at at the interactive prompt:
>>> import Foundation, AppKit
>>> AppKit.NSBeep()
If the import happened without complaint and you heard the system beep, you're most likely good to go; if not, you'll have to get help elsewhere. Congrats, that was a legitimate call into Apple's Cocoa libraries! Feeling tingly yet? We don't need Terminal any more, you can hide it.