Installing Python Engine on macOS

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∟Installing Python Engine on macOS

This section provides a tutorial example on installing latest version of Python engine on a macOS computer.

Before doing any tests with Python, I want to upgrade the Python engine to the latest version on my macOS system.

1. Go to Python download Website at https://www.python.org/downloads/.

2. Click "Download Python 3.8.0" button. And save the download file.

3. Double-click on the download file "python-3.8.0-macosx10.9.pkg" and follow installation instructions to finish the installation.

4. Go to the Launchpad. You see 2 new applications: Python IDLE and Python Launcher.

There are a number of ways to use the newer version of Python:

Python IDLE - A Python interpreter window with some limited GUI functionalities.
Python Launcher - A tool to associate the Python interpreter to *.py file extension. This allows you to double click *.py files to execute them.
"python" Command - A command line Python interpreter. This requires you enter the correct command that links to the Python interpreter program file.

Note that the newer version of Python did not replace the older version. So you have two versions of Python on your macOS located at different directories.

Python 2.7 Version - This is the older version pre-installed in the macOS system. You can access Python 2.7 with the "python" command:

herong$ python --version
Python 2.7.10

herong$ which python
/usr/bin/python

Python 3.8 Version - This is the newer version installed by you. You can access Python 3.8 with the "python3" command:

herong$ python3 --version
Python 3.8.0

herong$ which python3
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin/python3

herong$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/python3
... /usr/local/bin/python3 -> \
   ../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin/python3