Python on AIX: What are my options?

python aix ncurses curses
Enfors picture Enfors · Oct 29, 2009 · Viewed 13.3k times · Source

I need to make some Python applications for a work project. The target platform is AIX 5.3.

My question is: What version of Python should I be using?

My requirements are:

  • The Python version must be easy to install on the target machines. Others will do that according to instructions that I write, so no compiling from source or anything like that.

  • The Python version must have ncurses or curses support (I'm making a form handler).

I've found two different precompiled versions of Python for AIX, but one (2.1.something) didn't include the curses module, and the other (2.3.4, RPM format) had prerequisites that I failed to fulfill).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

Michael Dillon picture Michael Dillon · Oct 29, 2009

Use the AS Package of Python 2.6.3.7 from Activestate. They have a binary package for AIX on their download site.

If you don't have an AIX machine to test it on, the install works the same way on Solaris or Linux, so you could write your documentation based on that. Basically, you ungzip the tarball file, use tar to unpack the archive, change directory to the unpacked folder, run a shell script to install it, tell the shell script what directory to place it in, and wait.

Normally this would be used to install into a user directory, without superuser permissions, but you could install it anywhere that you like. You might also need to edit the system profile in order to make sure that all users can find the Python binary.

I suggest the latest Python 2.6, because it has a lot of bugfixes, and there is now a critical mass of 3rd party libraries ported to it. Also, the standard library includes a lot of useful stuff that you used to have to collect separately. Curses is in the standard library of Python 2.6.

Make sure to avoid Python 3.1 since it has not yet matured enough and provides few benefits for most business applications development.

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