Python can also be installed using a package manager on the Mac, such as Macports or Homebrew. I will discuss installation using Homebrew here as it seems to be the most user-friendly. For reference, you can go through the documentation titled Installing Python on macOS X at http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/osx/. Here is a summary of the steps:
- Install Homebrew and run the following command:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
- You then need to add the Homebrew folder at the top of your PATH environment variable.
- Install Python 2.7 at the Unix prompt:
brew install python
- Install third-party software – distribute and pip. Installation of Homebrew automatically installs these packages. Distribute and pip enable you to easily download and install/uninstall Python packages.