Python Apps For Mac

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In this tutorial we’ll be using py2app to create a standalone OSX application from a Python 2 or 3 source code with asimple Tkinter user interface.

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. Python is a object oriented programming language. Clean syntax, high-level data structures, dynamic typing, and rich support libraries combine to make Python a very productive tool for many types.

'py2app is a Python setuptools command which will allow you to make standalone application bundles and plugins from Python scripts. py2app is similar in purpose and design to py2exe for Windows.'

Relevant links about py2app:

Nov 28, 2015 Submitting a Python App to the Mac App Store (dafoster.net) PyInstaller - Another tool to create cross-platform standalone apps (libraries like PyQt, Django or matplotlib are fully supported) rumps - Ridiculously Uncomplicated Mac OS X Python Statusbar Apps; py2exe - same as py2app but for Windows.exe files. Sep 25, 2020 An Overview of Packaging for Python¶. As a general-purpose programming language, Python is designed to be used in many ways. You can build web sites or industrial robots or a game for your friends to play, and much more, all using the same core technology.

Source on BitBucket (last commit 2015-05-05)
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This guide is loosely based on the official tutorial.Based on a Python file called Sandwich.py, we’ll create an application called Sandwich.app.

Prerequisites

Create a custom directory and create a virtualenv:

Now create a very simple Tkinter app with the filename Sandwich.py:

This little app will look like this:

Install py2app

The original version of py2app has a bug due to a newer version of ModuleGraph. Imade a fork of the project and fixed this bug on Github.Install it with pip like this:

Create a `setup.py` file

py2app includes py2applet, a helper which generates a setup.py file for you:

This setup.py is a basic definition of the app:

If your application uses some data files, like a JSON, text files or images, you should include them in DATA_FILES. For example:

Build the app for development and testing

py2app builds the standalone application based on the definition in setup.py.

For testing and development, py2app provides an “alias mode”, which builds anapp with symbolic links to the development files:

This creates the following files and directories:

This is not a standalone application, and the applications built in alias mode are not portable to other machines!

The app built with alias mode simply references the original code files, so any changes you make to the original Sandwich.py file are instantly available on the next app start.

The resulting development app in dist/Sandwich.app can be opened just like any other .app with the Finderor the open command ($ open dist/Sandwich.app). To run your application directly from the Terminalyou can just run:

Building for deployment

When everything is tested you can produce a build for deployment with a calling python setup.py py2app. Make sure that any old build and dist directories are removed:

This will assemble your application as dist/Sandwich.app. Since this application is self-contained, you will have to run the py2app command again any time you change any source code, data files, options, etc.

The original py2app has a bug which would display “AttributeError: 'ModuleGraph' object has no attribute 'scan_code'” or load_module. If you encounter this error, takea look at this StackOverflow thread or use my fork of py2app.

The easiest way to wrap your application up for distribution at this point is simply to right-click the application from Finder and choose “Create Archive”.

Adding an icon

Simply add 'iconfile': 'youricon.icns' to the OPTIONS dict:

You can find free icons in icns format around the web (eg. on IconFinder or freepik).

Advanced app settings

You can tweak the application information and behaviour with modificationsto the Info.plist. The most complete reference for the keys available is Apple’s Runtime Configuration Guidelines.

Here is an example with more modifications:

With these settings, the app will have the following infos:

References

py2app documentation, examples
Tkinter, Tkinter resource collection, An Introduction to Tkinter

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 Python3.9 folder in your Applications folder. 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.

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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.

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.

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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.