# Macintosh Python crash course

This set of documents provides an introduction to various aspects of Python programming on the Mac. It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with Python and, to some extent, with MacOS Toolbox programming. Other readers may find something interesting here too, your mileage may vary.

There is a companion document Using Python on the Mac which you should read before starting here: it explains the basics of using python on the Macintosh.

Another set of Macintosh-savvy examples, more aimed at beginners, is maintained by Joseph Strout, at Python Tidbits in http://www.strout.net/python/.

The Python Library Reference contains a section on Macintosh-specific modules that you should also read. Documentation is also available in PostScript and other forms, see the documentation section on the webserver.

The W widget set by Just van Rossum, which is used by the Python IDE, does not have complete documentation as of this writing, but Corran Webster has documented most of it on his Python Page.

There are also some documentation links, as well as other MacPython-related pages, in the Open Directory.

## Table of contents

> Note: Some of these documents were actually written a long time ago and have seen little maintainance, so use with care.

- Using python to create Macintosh applications, part zero whets your appetite by showing you how to ask the user for a filename, and how to display a message. It explains about end-of-line confusion while doing so.
- Using python to create Macintosh applications, part one explains how to create a simple modal-dialog application in Python. It also takes a glance at using the toolbox modules Res and Dlg, and EasyDialogs for simple question-dialogs.
- Using python to create Macintosh applications, part two turns the previous example program into a more complete mac application, using a modeless dialog, menus, etc. It also explains how to create applets, standalone applications written in Python.
- Freezing Python programs extends on this concept, and shows you how to create applications that can be used on machines without a full Python installed. This one is probably best skipped on first contact with MacPython.
- Using FrameWork and TextEdit shows you how to use `FrameWork` application framework and the `TextEdit` toolbox to build a text editor.
- Using WASTE expands on this editor by using WASTE, an extended TextEdit replacement.
- Creating a C extension module on the Macintosh is meant for the hardcore programmer, and shows how to create an extension module in C. It also handles using Modulator to create the boilerplate for your module, and creating dynamically-loadable modules on PowerPC Macs. It assumes you use CodeWarrior for you development.
- Creating C extension modules using MPW is a companion document, written by Corran Webster, which explains how you can develop Python extensions using Apple's free MPW compiler environment.
- Using Open Scripting Architecture from Python explains how to create a Python module interfacing to a scriptable application, and how to use that module in your python program.
- Using python to create CGI scripts is a preliminary introduction to writing CGI scripts in Python and to writing scriptable applications in Python.
- Building Mac Python from source explains how to build a PPC or 68K interpreter from a source distribution.
- Embedding Python on the Mac is a minimal example of how to embed Python in other Mac applications.

The Python distribution contains a few more examples, all unexplained:

- PICTbrowse is an application that locates PICT resources and displays them, it demonstrates some quickdraw and the resource and list managers. In the same folder you will find the very similar scripts ICONbrowse and cicnbrowse. oldPICTbrowse is the same program but form the pre-Appearance era, it uses a dialog with a user item and creates and manages its own List object.
- Imgbrowse displays image files in many different formats (gif, tiff, pbm, etc). It shows how to use the img modules on the mac.
- Quicktime has the standard `MovieInWindow` and `VerySimplePlayer` examples, re-coded in Python.
- Resources, Sound and Speech have some examples on using the respective managers. In the Mac:Lib folder you will also find modules that do useful things with the Communications Toolbox, the Finder interface, etc.
- Printing has an example on using the Printing module to, you guessed it, print from Python. The code is somewhat self-documenting. Donated by Just van Rossum, who also donated the Printing module itself.

At some point in the (possibly distant) future, I will add chapters on how to use bgen to create modules completely automatic and how to make your Python program scriptable, but that will have to wait.

Please let me know if you miss critical information in this document. I am quite sure that I will never find the time to turn it into a complete MacPython programmers guide (which would probably be a 400-page book instead of 10 lousy html-files), but it should contain at least the information that is neither in the standard Python documentation nor in Inside Mac or other Mac programmers documentation.

Jack Jansen, jack@cwi.nl, 22-Apr-00.