Help: making Macports Python installation work with an older version of Tcl

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jul 10, 2009, at 09:47, Frank Schima wrote:

> On Jul 9, 2009, at 7:37 PM, Tom Baldwin wrote:
>
>> When Macports installs Python, it updates Tcl and Tk to the latest  
>> version (8.5) as a dependency. For compatibility reasons, I want  
>> this Python installation to work with Tcl/Tk version 8.4 instead.  
>> By commanding "port deactivate Tcl" and "port deactivate Tk" I can  
>> restore these to what I had before: commanding "tclsh" and then  
>> entering "info patchlevel" at the prompt confirms that the version  
>> is now back to 8.4. I assume this is the version which comes  
>> preinstalled on the mac.
>>
>> However, when I go back to my python installation and "import  
>> Tkinter", it fails. How can I get my macports-installed Python  
>> version to work with Tcl and Tk which were not installed by macports?
>
> MacPorts is not designed to work with built-in Mac OS X libraries  
> [1]. However, I have the same requirement because I use the blt  
> port. What I do is replace my local tcl and tk portfiles with the  
> latest 8.4.x versions. See ticket #14488 [2] where I have attached  
> those versions of the portfiles. Note that if you are not running  
> from svn, you might want to turn off the write flag on the  
> portfiles so they don't get updated when you run selfupdate.

There are also general instructions for installing an older version  
of a port:

http://trac.macports.org/wiki/howto/InstallingOlderPort

The specific example I give in the instructions is how to install tcl  
8.4.16.