Python library installing macports

I would like to install:

A. Mod python on a regular Macbookpro (MacOSX 10.6.4) B. And MySQL for Python on the same compute开发者_如何学运维r.

And the installation is constantly failing.

Question 1: Is there a tutorial on how to achieve this on Mac OS?

I also hoped that I could use Macports for this. I had bad experience with Macports and installing python.

I am sure this is due to my not understanding the concept of:

• ports
• profile (pythonpath)

Question 2: What would I have to write in the .profile to make packages be recognized by python?

Question 3: What exactly is a port?

In general it would be awesome to get an understanding on how to install packages in python quick and effectively.

Also the build in version of Python by Apple seems to have settings, that, if changed can make your life difficult.

Question 4: Any detailed experience or advice on this issues would he very helpful.

For a quick start into programming.

Thanks!

This answer is outdated, see Mark's response below

I had trouble installing python and python libraries on osx, and this is what I ended up doing to fix it:

Using macports I installed python26 and python_select. Then use python_select to change from the default python26-apple to python26 (which is from macports). Now when you use macports to install any python26 library it will just work.

One of the main drawbacks of this approach is that macports installs everything from source, which is slow and buggy compared to using pre-build binaries, but for me it's worth it to be able to manage most of my FOSS software through macports.