Hi,
I'm planning to learn Python together with my 13 year old son. After learning the basics it would be nice to add some graphics and maybe work on a simple game. It seems like Pygame would be a good choice for this project, but checking the Pygame install tutorials I realize that there are additional files/libraries(?) that need to be installed. Compatibility issues between versions of Python/Pygame is also a concern. As I am no computer wizard (yet) I want to avoid the most complex tasks when installing. I'm using a MacBook Snow Leopard while my son is a Windows person. It would be nice to have about the same versions on both computers. Is there a foolproof install out there? Advice, anyone?

Wow, python is obviously not a high priority for mac.
The last post here is the closest I can get a description of getting pygame to work with python 3.1, involving installing prerequisites and compiling from source.

Installing the latest versions on windows is pretty easy though.
Get python from here, and any modules you want from here



There is a few alternatives I can see in addition to the above procedure

1.
Go with Python 2.7 and pygame for python 2.7 on the mac.
The difference between python 2.x and 3.x isn't that big but I can see why you are not comfortable resolving to it.
Besides, I'm not sure this is all that easy to install on a mac either.

2.
Install Ubuntu on the mac as a virtual machine
I can't really advice you to try this though. I don't want to you to mess up your system ^^



Can anyone confirm that python is such a low priority for mac?

Wow, python is obviously not a high priority for mac.

Why do you say python is not a high priority item for Mac? I do full time python development on OSX and I never got this impression.

On a side note, developing software in general isn't really a high priority thing on OSX (lack a single packaging solution, destruction of Postgres when upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion, etc.). But some of us still do it/put up with it. =P

The last post here is the closest I can get a description of getting pygame to work with python 3.1, involving installing prerequisites and compiling from source.

My recommendation is, don't use Python 3 (yet). Stick with 2.7.

Python 2.7 isn't 'old', it's just the lastest version of Python 2.x. Some of the improvements made to 3.x have even been backported into Python 2.7.

What's the difference between 2.x and 3.x? Read this: http://wiki.python.o...ython2orPython3

Installing the latest versions on windows is pretty easy though.
Get python from here, and any modules you want from here



There is a few alternatives I can see in addition to the above procedure

1.
Go with Python 2.7 and pygame for python 2.7 on the mac.
The difference between python 2.x and 3.x isn't that big but I can see why you are not comfortable resolving to it.

There is actually quite a significant difference between 2.x and 3.x.

Read this: http://en.wikipedia....000#Version_3.0

Besides, I'm not sure this is all that easy to install on a mac either.

Macports appears to have a Pygame package for Python 2.7 (py27-game). Do `port search pygame`.

I just tried to install it and it has quite a few dependencies; it will take a while to install. But it's there.

2.
Install Ubuntu on the mac as a virtual machine
I can't really advice you to try this though. I don't want to you to mess up your system ^^

Nothing wrong with this; I've done it. In fact, running your dev environment in a virtual machine would actually help keep things clean in OSX. I've developed on OSX with my entire dev environment set up in an Ubuntu virtual machine (running on VirtualBox). All I had to do was SSH into the VM. It's not an ideal situation (there is the overhead and storage space required to run a VM), but it's not bad either.

Can anyone confirm that python is such a low priority for mac?

Why do you think it's 'low priority'? Macs are just a pain in the ass compared to Linux when it comes to dev environment. OSX still has the same capabilities as most of the major Linux distros with respect development, it's just more difficult to set up.

@OP: Since you and your son are different platforms (OSX and Windows), developing on a Linux VM would be a pretty good solution for the both of you, in my opinion. Grab the latest version of Ubuntu or Mint and it should be pretty easy to set up. There's a package called 'python-pygame'.