[Daniel] PyGame & Mac OS X

In a fit of extraordinary typing, it's a third entry. I'll try to keep this one concise. Debian (GNU/Linux) sucks and Mac OS X is not as open-source friendly as I would like. Before anyone burns my inbox to a crisp with flames, I'd like a chance to explain myself.



The situation is that I've taken a strong liking to Python. After being a Perl guy for a number of years (and PHP as of late), I finally gave Python a shot because I had heard many good things about it. Let me say that they are all undeniably true. It's a great language, well thought out and designed. It may even overtake my affection for Perl (gasp!).



That said, I have been struggling to get PyGame and PyOpenGL to install on whatever system I attempt to use. Acquiring and installing these has been a real challenge.



Getting everything up and going is no hassle in Mac OS X. After all, python is already there and the entire system is already set up the way I want it and the way I am productive. The Terminal is kind of shoddy if you're used to Linux or *BSD but you get used to it. The real killer here is trying to get PyGame and PyOpenGL working. The binary release available for Mac OS X for PyGame is over a full year old and created for the previous version of Mac OS X (10.2). It includes a FULL copy of python that installs to a non-standard location, as well as installing everything else needed to a separate, non-standard location. Now I have two copies of python on my computer and only the out of date one will cooperate with the rest of the stuff it installed. Pretty worthless and unhelpful. So to alleviate this, since there are no current binary releases, you have the option to download each of the two source distributions. Then you have to download the dependancies for each (10+ more source distributions). Then you have to get further dependancies for those dependancies (at least 2 more). Then they all must be installed in the correct order (because of interdependancy) and then you discover halfway through that YOU NEED TO DOWNLOAD OTHER DEPENDANCIES. At this point, I gave up on trying to bend Mac OS X to my will, conceeding that perhaps it is not the ideal python environment.



Debian is one of the oldest Linux distributions. It has many spinoffs and is quite popular (some say second only to the Hat). I've given it a try several times over the last 5 years and each time, I leave it feeling unfulfilled. Yes, getting new software can be as easy as one simple command ("apt-get install python"). However, Debian's creators insist on ultimate stability, which means you usually must use code that is about 2-5 years old. With more advanced configuration, you are allowed to pull from unstable sources. However, then the package must be available, as well as all of its dependancies.



The nail in the coffin of my use of Debian, however, was the boot process. When the machine is done loading all of its software, it insists on starting the X server with the crappiest display manager possible (xdm) and ignoring all of my settings. Again, while this problem is fixable, I didn't really want to spend several more hours just figuring out Debian boot scripts and editing them to my liking.



So back to Slackware (emulated) I run, hoping to have a better experience at trying to get what was supposed to be "simple to do" up and running. I'm pretty frustrated right now overall. The true open-source response to this would be that I should figure out how to build the packages and release them for use rather than complain about it. Perhaps that will be my next project. But for now, I'd just like to be able to draw with code. :(