Document changes to OS X installer configurations for 2.7.7.

As of 2.7.8, the 32-bit-only installer will support OS X 10.5 and later systems as is currently done for Python 3.x installers. For 2.7.7 only, we will provide three installers: the legacy deprecated 10.3+ 32-bit-only format; the newer 10.5+ 32-bit-only format; and the unchanged 10.6+ 64-/32-bit format. Although binary installers will no longer be available from python.org as of 2.7.8, it will still be possible to build from source on 10.3.9 and 10.4 systems if necessary.

Document changes to OS X installer configurations for 2.7.7.
As of 2.7.8, the 32-bit-only installer will support OS X 10.5 and later systems as is currently done for Python 3.x installers. For 2.7.7 only, we will provide three installers: the legacy deprecated 10.3+ 32-bit-only format; the newer 10.5+ 32-bit-only format; and the unchanged 10.6+ 64-/32-bit format. Although binary installers will no longer be available from python.org as of 2.7.8, it will still be possible to build from source on 10.3.9 and 10.4 systems if necessary.
78cceec1 · Ned Deily · 36f28f7a · 78cceec1 · 78cceec1 · 78cceec1
Commit 78cceec1 authored May 17, 2014 by Ned Deily
5 changed files
--- a/Mac/BuildScript/README.txt
+++ b/Mac/BuildScript/README.txt
@@ -8,11 +8,15 @@ $DESTROOT, massages that installation to remove .pyc files and such, creates
 an Installer package from the installation plus other files in ``resources`` 
 and ``scripts`` and placed that on a ``.dmg`` disk image.

-For Python 2.7.x and 3.2.x, PSF practice is to build two installer variants
+For Python 2.7.x and 3.x, PSF practice is to build two installer variants
 for each release.

-1.  32-bit-only, i386 and PPC universal, capable on running on all machines
-    supported by Mac OS X 10.3.9 through (at least) 10.8::
+Beginning with Python 2.7.8, we plan to drop binary installer support for
+Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4.x systems.  To ease the transition, for Python 2.7.7
+only there will be three installers provided:
+
+1.  DEPRECATED - 32-bit-only, i386 and PPC universal, capable on running on all
+    machines supported by Mac OS X 10.3.9 through (at least) 10.9::

        /usr/bin/python build-installer.py \
            --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk \
@@ -45,8 +49,42 @@ for each release.
            - need to change ``/System/Library/Frameworks/{Tcl,Tk}.framework/Version/Current`` to ``8.4``
        * Note Xcode 4.* does not support building for PPC so cannot be used for this build

+2.  32-bit-only, i386 and PPC universal, capable on running on all machines
+    supported by Mac OS X 10.5 through (at least) 10.9::
+
+        /usr/bin/python  build-installer.py \
+            --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk \
+            --universal-archs=32-bit \
+            --dep-target=10.5

-2.  64-bit / 32-bit, x86_64 and i386 universal, for OS X 10.6 (and later)::
+    - builds the following third-party libraries
+
+        * NCurses 5.9
+        * SQLite 3.7.13
+        * Oracle Sleepycat DB 4.8 (Python 2.x only)
+
+    - uses system-supplied versions of third-party libraries
+
+        * readline module links with Apple BSD editline (libedit)
+
+    - requires ActiveState ``Tcl/Tk 8.4`` (currently 8.4.20) to be installed for building
+
+    - recommended build environment:
+
+        * Mac OS X 10.5.8 Intel or PPC
+        * Xcode 3.1.4
+        * ``MacOSX10.5`` SDK
+        * ``MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.5``
+        * Apple ``gcc-4.2``
+        * system Python 2.5+ for documentation build with Sphinx
+
+    - alternate build environments:
+
+        * Mac OS X 10.6.8 with Xcode 3.2.6
+            - need to change ``/System/Library/Frameworks/{Tcl,Tk}.framework/Version/Current`` to ``8.4``
+        * Note Xcode 4.* does not support building for PPC so cannot be used for this build
+
+3.  64-bit / 32-bit, x86_64 and i386 universal, for OS X 10.6 (and later)::

        /usr/bin/python build-installer.py \
            --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk \
@@ -57,13 +95,13 @@ for each release.

        * NCurses 5.9 (http://bugs.python.org/issue15037)
        * SQLite 3.7.13
+        * Oracle Sleepycat DB 4.8 (Python 2.x only)

    - uses system-supplied versions of third-party libraries

        * readline module links with Apple BSD editline (libedit)
-        * builds Oracle Sleepycat DB 4.8 (Python 2.x only)

-    - requires ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.5.9 (or later) to be installed for building
+    - requires ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.5.15 (or later) to be installed for building

    - recommended build environment:

@@ -82,10 +120,10 @@ for each release.
          considered a migration aid by Apple and is not likely to be fixed,
          its use should be avoided.  The other compiler, ``clang``, has been
          undergoing rapid development.  While it appears to have become
-          production-ready in the most recent Xcode 4 releases (Xcode 4.5.x
-          as of this writing), there are still some open issues when
-          building Python and there has not yet been the level of exposure in
-          production environments that the Xcode 3 gcc-4.2 compiler has had.
+          production-ready in the most recent Xcode 5 releases, the versions
+          available on the deprecated Xcode 4.x for 10.6 were early releases
+          and did not receive the level of exposure in production environments
+          that the Xcode 3 gcc-4.2 compiler has had.


 General Prerequisites

--- a/Mac/BuildScript/resources/ReadMe.txt
+++ b/Mac/BuildScript/resources/ReadMe.txt
@@ -28,6 +28,32 @@ of the Tcl/Tk frameworks.  Visit http://www.python.org/download/mac/tcltk/
 for current information about supported and recommended versions of
 Tcl/Tk for this version of Python and of Mac OS X.

+               **** IMPORTANT ****
+
+Binary installer support for 10.4 and 10.3.9 to be discontinued
+===============================================================
+
+Python 2.7.7 is the last release for which binary installers will be
+released on python.org that support OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) and 10.4.x
+(Tiger) systems.  These systems were last updated by Apple in 2005
+and 2007.  As of 2.7.8, the 32-bit-only installer will support PPC
+and Intel Macs running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and later.  10.5 was the
+last OS X release for PPC machines (G4 and G5).  (The 64-/32-bit
+installer configuration will remain unchanged.)  This aligns Python
+2.7.x installer configurations with those currently provided with
+Python 3.x.  Some of the reasons for making this change are:
+there were significant additions and compatibility improvements to
+the OS X POSIX system APIs in OS X 10.5 that Python users can now
+take advantage of; it is increasingly difficult to build and test
+on obsolete 10.3 and 10.4 systems and with the 10.3 ABI; and it is
+assumed that most remaining legacy PPC systems have upgraded to 10.5.
+To ease the transition, for Python 2.7.7 only we are providing three
+binary installers: (1) the legacy deprecated 32-bit-only 10.3+
+PPC/Intel format, (2) the newer 32-bit-only 10.5+ PPC/Intel format,
+and (3) the current 64-bit/32-bit 10.6+ Intel-only format.  While
+future releases will not provide the deprecated installer, it will
+still be possible to build Python from source on 10.3.9 and 10.4
+systems if needed.

 Using this version of Python on OS X
 ====================================

--- a/Mac/BuildScript/resources/Welcome.rtf
+++ b/Mac/BuildScript/resources/Welcome.rtf
-{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf1038\cocoasubrtf350
-{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;}
+{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf1265\cocoasubrtf200
+\cocoascreenfonts1{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;}
 {\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
-\paperw11904\paperh16836\margl1440\margr1440\vieww9640\viewh10620\viewkind0
-\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\ql\qnatural
+\paperw11905\paperh16837\margl1440\margr1440\vieww9640\viewh10620\viewkind0
+\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640

 \f0\fs24 \cf0 This package will install 
 \b Python $FULL_VERSION
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 \b IDLE
 \b0  and a set of pre-built extension modules that open up specific Macintosh technologies to Python programs.\
 \
-See the ReadMe file and the Python documentation for more information.\
+See the ReadMe file and the Python documentation for important information, including the dropping of support for OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4 in future Python 2.7.x binary installers.\
 \

 \b IMPORTANT:

--- a/Mac/README
+++ b/Mac/README
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -436,6 +436,20 @@ Windows
 - Issue #21303, #20565: Updated the version of Tcl/Tk included in the
  installer from 8.5.2 to 8.5.15.

+Mac OS X
+--------
+
+- As of 2.7.8, the 32-bit-only installer will support OS X 10.5
+  and later systems as is currently done for Python 3.x installers.
+  For 2.7.7 only, we will provide three installers:
+  the legacy deprecated 10.3+ 32-bit-only format;
+  the newer 10.5+ 32-bit-only format;
+  and the unchanged 10.6+ 64-/32-bit format.
+  Although binary installers will no longer be available from
+  python.org as of 2.7.8, it will still be possible to build from
+  source on 10.3.9 and 10.4 systems if necessary.
+  See Mac/BuildScript/README.txt for more information.
+

 Whats' New in Python 2.7.6?
 ===========================