Install Python 3 on MacOS. Historically MacOS came preinstalled with Python 2, however starting with Mac 10.15 (released in October 2019) this is no longer the case.And since Python 2 will no longer be officially supported as of January 1, 2020, you should really use Python 3 instead. Installing Anaconda using a graphical installer is probably the easiest way to install Anaconda. 1 ‒ Go to the Anaconda Website and choose a Python 3.x graphical installer (A) or a Python 2.x graphical installer (B). If you aren’t sure which Python version you want to install, choose Python 3. Do not choose both. By default MacOS ships with Python-2. But, I guess most of us have long back started to work with Python-3 and it is very irritating to run python3 every time instead of python in terminal.
- Windows users: If installing Python 3.6.0 as a non-privileged user, you may need to escalate to administrator privileges to install an update to your C runtime libraries. Windows users: There are now 'web-based' installers for Windows platforms; the installer will download the needed software components at installation time.
- After installing Python 3.6, you can set it as the default python3 by typing: sudo port select -set python3 python36 Note that you could also set it as the default python (replacing “python3” with “python” above), but it’s not recommended since the Mac OS X already uses python internally and messing probably won’t end well.
Author: | Bob Savage <bobsavage@mac.com> |
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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
MacPython3.6
folder in yourApplications
folder. In hereyou find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of officialPython distributions; PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Pythonscripts from the Finder; and the “Build Applet” tool, which allows you topackage Python scripts as standalone applications on your system. - 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.
![Install Python 3 6 On Mac Install Python 3 6 On Mac](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4bLbNisLVW0/maxresdefault.jpg)
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¶
![Install Python 3 6 On Mac Install Python 3 6 On Mac](https://www.w3schools.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/python-windows-installer-screen-700x452.png)
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.org) 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 3.6, you can use either python or pythonw.
4.1.3. Configuration¶
Python on OS X honors all standard Unix environment variables such as
PYTHONPATH
, 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 athttps://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~dyoo/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¶
Install Python 3.7 On 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://pythonhosted.org/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.Python 2.7 Install
wxPython is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively onMac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from http://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. How to download adobe lightroom for free mac.
4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac¶
The “Build Applet” tool that is placed in the MacPython 3.6 folder is fine forpackaging small Python scripts on your own machine to run as a standard Macapplication. How do i find imovie on my mac. This tool, however, is not robust enough to distribute Pythonapplications to other users.
Python 3.7 Download
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:
Python 3.6 Download Mac
Another useful resource is the MacPython wiki: