Python for Mac OS X. Python comes pre-installed on Mac OS X so it is easy to start using. However, to take advantage of the latest versions of Python, you will need to download and install newer versions alongside the system ones. The easiest way to do that is to install one of the binary installers for OS X from the Python Download page. I'm trying to find a good 'python GUI framework' for Mac OS X, but I haven't found anything good until now, only wxWidgets which I don't like and it's also unstable. Any suggestions?
A library for creating NUI applications, running on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android and iOS. 8.4 9.5 Python Super-simple GUI to grasp. Powerfully customizable. Based on tkinter, Qt, WxPython, Remi (for browser based). A Python native, OS native GUI toolkit. 7.0 6.3 L3 Python Flexx is a pure Python toolkit for. Kivy is an OpenGL ES 2 accelerated framework for the creation of new user interfaces. Python GUI framework for Mac OS X. Ask Question Asked 10 years, 5 months ago. Active 6 years, 7 months ago. Viewed 21k times 7. I'm trying to find a good 'python GUI framework' for Mac OS X, but I haven't found anything good until now, only wxWidgets which I.
Bob Savage <bobsavage@mac.com>
Python on a Macintosh running Mac OS X is in principle very similar to Python onany other Unix platform, but there are a number of additional features such asthe IDE and the Package Manager that are worth pointing out.
4.1. Getting and Installing MacPython¶
Mac OS X 10.8 comes with Python 2.7 pre-installed by Apple. If you wish, youare invited to install the most recent version of Python 3 from the Pythonwebsite (https://www.python.org). A current “universal binary” build of Python,which runs natively on the Mac’s new Intel and legacy PPC CPU’s, is availablethere.
What you get after installing is a number of things:
A
Python3.9folder in yourApplicationsfolder. In hereyou find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of officialPython distributions; and PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Pythonscripts from the Finder.A framework
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework, which includes thePython executable and libraries. The installer adds this location to your shellpath. To uninstall MacPython, you can simply remove these three things. Asymlink to the Python executable is placed in /usr/local/bin/.
The Apple-provided build of Python is installed in/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework and /usr/bin/python,respectively. You should never modify or delete these, as they areApple-controlled and are used by Apple- or third-party software. Remember thatif you choose to install a newer Python version from python.org, you will havetwo different but functional Python installations on your computer, so it willbe important that your paths and usages are consistent with what you want to do.
IDLE includes a help menu that allows you to access Python documentation. If youare completely new to Python you should start reading the tutorial introductionin that document.
If you are familiar with Python on other Unix platforms you should read thesection on running Python scripts from the Unix shell.
4.1.1. How to run a Python script¶
Your best way to get started with Python on Mac OS X is through the IDLEintegrated development environment, see section The IDE and use the Help menuwhen the IDE is running.
If you want to run Python scripts from the Terminal window command line or fromthe Finder you first need an editor to create your script. Mac OS X comes with anumber of standard Unix command line editors, vim andemacs among them. If you want a more Mac-like editor,BBEdit or TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software (seehttp://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html) are good choices, as isTextMate (see https://macromates.com/). Other editors includeGvim (http://macvim-dev.github.io/macvim/) and Aquamacs(http://aquamacs.org/).
To run your script from the Terminal window you must make sure that/usr/local/bin is in your shell search path.
To run your script from the Finder you have two options:
Drag it to PythonLauncher
Select PythonLauncher as the default application to open yourscript (or any .py script) through the finder Info window and double-click it.PythonLauncher has various preferences to control how your script islaunched. Option-dragging allows you to change these for one invocation, or useits Preferences menu to change things globally.
4.1.2. Running scripts with a GUI¶
With older versions of Python, there is one Mac OS X quirk that you need to beaware of: programs that talk to the Aqua window manager (in other words,anything that has a GUI) need to be run in a special way. Use pythonwinstead of python to start such scripts.
With Python 3.9, you can use either python or pythonw.
4.1.3. Configuration¶
Python on OS X honors all standard Unix environment variables such asPYTHONPATH, but setting these variables for programs started from theFinder is non-standard as the Finder does not read your .profile or.cshrc at startup. You need to create a file~/.MacOSX/environment.plist. See Apple’s Technical Document QA1067 fordetails.
For more information on installation Python packages in MacPython, see sectionInstalling Additional Python Packages.
Python Gui Windows
4.2. The IDE¶
MacPython ships with the standard IDLE development environment. A goodintroduction to using IDLE can be found athttp://www.hashcollision.org/hkn/python/idle_intro/index.html.
4.3. Installing Additional Python Packages¶
There are several methods to install additional Python packages:
Packages can be installed via the standard Python distutils mode (
pythonsetup.pyinstall).Many packages can also be installed via the setuptools extensionor pip wrapper, see https://pip.pypa.io/.
4.4. GUI Programming on the Mac¶
There are several options for building GUI applications on the Mac with Python.
PyObjC is a Python binding to Apple’s Objective-C/Cocoa framework, which isthe foundation of most modern Mac development. Information on PyObjC isavailable from https://pypi.org/project/pyobjc/.
The standard Python GUI toolkit is tkinter, based on the cross-platformTk toolkit (https://www.tcl.tk). An Aqua-native version of Tk is bundled with OSX by Apple, and the latest version can be downloaded and installed fromhttps://www.activestate.com; it can also be built from source.
wxPython is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively onMac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from https://www.wxpython.org.
PyQt is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively on MacOS X. More information can be found athttps://riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/intro.
4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac¶
The standard tool for deploying standalone Python applications on the Mac ispy2app. More information on installing and using py2app can be foundat http://undefined.org/python/#py2app.
4.6. Other Resources¶
The MacPython mailing list is an excellent support resource for Python users anddevelopers on the Mac:
Another useful resource is the MacPython wiki:
The Python programming language works on many platforms including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, many Linux distributions other systems.
This article consists of two parts:
- GUI module - how to create a desktop interface with Python
- Python to Executable - turn a Python program into an executable
The hardest part is learn Python, how to use a GUI module. To create an executable, there are several command line tools.
GUI module
The first thing you will need is a GUI module. Of course, there are many GUI modules for Python. The most commonly used GUI modules are:
- Tkinter - this module is based on the old Tk GUI toolkit. It is the default GUI library for python and it is free for commercial projects. Tk is rather limited with the number of widgets and has an old design.
- PyQt - Python bindings for the Qt framework. It's free (gpl) but not for commercial products. Qt comes with many widgets and features and is under continuous development. If you are new to PyQt, I recommend this course & book.
- PyGTK, a wrapper on the GTK toolkit. The gnome (gtk) desktop environment is an option on Linux systems.
Python is interpreted
Strictly speaking, you don't have to compile python for Mac/Windows/Linux because it is an interpreted language.
That means that if you have the Python interpreter installed on the platform and the required modules, you can run the program.
Python is installed on every Linux, Mac and Windows OS (I think) by default now. So all you need is have the non-standard modules installed if you use them.
However, your end-users may not be familiar with Python and other installing modules, so you may want to create an executable and an installer.
It is possible to build executables with the python interpreter, which we will discuss in the next section.
Create executable
After you made your GUI program in Python, you can convert it into a standalone executable. There are several tools that can do this, there is more than one way to do this.
Cross platform, all platforms
Best Python Gui Builder
- PyInstaller - PyInstaller freezes Python apps into stand-alone executables for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris and AIX. It supports Python 2.7 and Python 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6.
First install it with the pip package manager:
Then run pyinstaller in your programs folder:
- fbs - package Python apps that use PyQt. See Python PyQt to executable. fbs is not free for commercial use, but for non-commercial use it's free. It comes with setup program for your end-users.
Windows executable
- py2exe - converts your Python program to a windows executable. It's only for building executables on Windows, you can't build a Windows executable from Linux or Mac OS X.
Best Looking Python Gui
Linux executable
- Freeze - works like py2exe but for the Linux platform
Python Gui For Mac Os 10.13
Mac executable
Best Gui Library Python
- py2app - create Mac OS executables from Python. py2app is similar in purpose and design to py2exe for Windows.