Differences between MacPython 2.4.1 and Universal Python 2.4.2:
/ApplicationsMacPython-2.4 is now /Applications/Python 2.4
PythonIDE, /PackageManager are gone. These applications have been deprecated for quite a long time, and depend on WASTE, which is somewhat non-free and is not available for x86.
- select.poll and related constants exist on systems that have a correct poll implementation (definitely 10.4.4).
- pythonw is now an executable that does an execv (instead of a script), so it may be used in #!scripts
- All extensions and the framework are built universal for ppc and i386
- The MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET defaults to 10.3, and extensions are built such that they will probably be compatible with 10.3.9+
- Versions of Mac OS X prior to 10.3.9 are not supported with this build
Unfinished differences between MacPython 2.4.1 and Universal Python 2.4.2:
The Python HTML documentation is now in Python.framework/Versions/2.4/Doc/html, which IDLE knows about.
- The python in the bin directory is now also pythonw, so pythonw is only necessary for legacy purposes.
The installer places the framework's bin directory on the PATH for normal shells
Patches in Universal Python 2.4.2 vs Python 2.4.2 source trees:
- select.poll brokenness detection is moved from configure time to runtime
- CONFIGURE_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET is now MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
- distribution scripts have been rewritten in python rather than a hodgepodge of makefiles
/PythonLauncher is built without xcode/pbxbuild