"Using Python on Mac" page is outdated

[pradyunsg]

Coming from https://mail.python.org/archives/list/docs@python.org/thread/XEMCNFIXKCFZKIWV5GRLFFJZCWWK3FYQ/

The "Using Python on Mac" documentation page (Doc/using/mac.rst) is significantly out of date and has various issues arising out of this:

• It mentions that macOS comes with Python 2.7 by default, but that it was removed in 12.3
• It discusses universal binaries (used during the PowerPC -> Intel transition) but not the universal2 binaries (the ongoing Intel -> ARM transition).
• It consistently refers to "MacPython", which seems to be the historical name used? It's likely clearer to say Python on macOS today, so that's likely a worthwhile update.
• It refers to IDLE as "IDE". :)
• It suggests doing python setup.py install, something that the setuptools developers actively discourage and want users to move away from.

[ezio-melotti]

See also:

• macOS build docs need refresh (2019) #80086
  • Setup guide should link to platform readme (macOS) devguide#453
    • WIP: Mention and link to the macOS readme in the repo. devguide#454
• Preventing warning when installing dependencies on Mac OS X #93658
  • Updating brew install command to avoid pkg-config warning devguide#891
• Can't build _tkinter module using brew install on Mac OS X #93659
  • Updating brew install command to build _tkinter devguide#893

[pradyunsg]

Those all seem to be about the building of CPython on macOS. This is a separate page, intended for “how to use Python on macOS”.

[ezio-melotti]

It seems there are at least 3 files related to macOS:

1. https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.10/Doc/using/mac.rst
2. https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.10/Mac/README.rst
3. https://github.com/python/devguide/blob/main/setup.rst#macos-and-os-x

The third file was recently updated (by some of the issues I linked) with information that might (or might not) be relevant. One of those issues also suggested to update the second file (python/devguide#453). This issue is about the first file, but since there might be some overlapping between these files, it would be good to compare and update all of them, possibly in separate issues.

[hugovk]

"Using Python on a Mac" (Doc/using/mac.rst) was recently updated in #115024 and #117059.

I think we can close this now.