Do you want to share a Python script to a friend that doesn’t have Python installed? In this post you’ll learn how 🙂 With the py2app package you can compile a Python script and create a portable Mac application. If you’re using windows, you can check py2exe. First of all, we need to install the py2app python package. Py2app - Create standalone Mac OS X applications with Python¶. 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. The software can also be called 'renpy', 'RenPy'. This Mac download was scanned by our antivirus and was rated as virus free. The software is included in Design & Photo Tools. This free Mac app is a product of Renpy. The most frequent installer filename for the application is: renpy-6.18.3-sdk.zip. The bundle id for Ren'Py for Mac is org.renpy. I want to create a GUI application which should work on Windows and Mac. For this I've chosen Python. The problem is on Mac OS X. There are 2 tools to generate an '.app' for Mac: py2app and pyinstaller. Py2app is pretty good, but it adds the source code in the package. I don't want to.
Bob Savage <bobsavage@mac.com>
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
Python3.9folder in yourApplicationsfolder. 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.
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.
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.
wxPython is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively onMac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from https://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.
4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac¶
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:
Another useful resource is the MacPython wiki:
Platypus is a developer tool that creates native Mac applications from command line scripts such as shell scripts or Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, JavaScript and PHP programs. This is done by wrapping the script in a macOS application bundle along with an app binary that runs the script.
Platypus makes it easy to share scripts and programs with people who are unfamiliar with the command line interface. Native, user-friendly applications can be created with a few clicks. It is very easy to create installers, droplets, administrative applications, login items, status menu items, launchers and automations using Platypus.
Features
- Supports shell scripts, Python, Perl, Ruby, PHP, Swift, Expect, Tcl, AWK, JavaScript, AppleScript or any other user-specified interpreter
- Apps can display graphical feedback of script execution as progress bar, text window with script output, droplet, WebKit HTML rendering or status item menu
- Apps support receiving dragged and dropped files or text snippets, which are then passed to the script as arguments
- Apps can execute scripts with root privileges via the macOS Security Framework
- Apps can register as handlers for URI schemes
- Apps can be configured to run in the background (LSUIElement)
- Set own application icon or select from presets
- Set app's associated file types, identifier, version, author, etc.
- Graphical interface for bundling support files with the script
- Command line tool for automation and build process integration
- 'Profiles' can be used to save app configurations
- Built-in script editor, or linking with external editor of choice
- Extensive documentation and many built-in examples to help you get started
- Fast, responsive native app written in Objective-C/Cocoa
License
Platypus is free, open source software distributed under the terms of the three-clause BSD license and has been continually maintained and developed for a very long time (since 2003). It is written in Objective-C/Cocoa. The source code is available on GitHub.
If Platypus makes your life easier, please make a donation to support continued development.
Download
The latest version is Platypus 5.3, released on November 25th, 2018. Platypus and Platypus-generated applications require macOS 10.8 or later, and are 64-bit Intel binaries. The main Platypus application is Apple Developer ID signed (sigh)...
If you want to target 10.6 and/or 32-bit systems, version 4.9 continues to work just fine. If you want to target 10.4 and PowerPC, you can use version 4.4.
- man page (HTML)
- Appcast (XML)
Screenshots
Platypus lets you select one of several different user interfaces for your script.
Py App For Mac Catalina
