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Asked: 2026-05-22T16:48:00+00:00

I want to have multiple installs of Python: 2.1, 2.4, 2.7, 3.x My IDE

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I want to have multiple installs of Python: 2.1, 2.4, 2.7, 3.x
My IDE is Eclipse (Helios)/Pydev on MacOSX, which works great. I have a couple of Python codebases that are/will be running on different versions of Python. Also, I like Eclipse PyDev’s crosslinking from source-code to documentation.

The standard recommendation seems to be: use virtualenv, and keep the installs totally separate from the builtin MacPython (2.6.1). Eclipse should never be pointing to the MacPython install. (Should PYTHONPATH even be set in such an environment?)

Before I get on with virtualenv, is there anything else I should know about this?
virtualenv doesn’t impose any overhead, and I shouldn’t be worried with occasional comments about breakage to nose, coverage etc?

I’m interested in hearing from Eclipse or Pydev users on MacOS.
Also if anyone has other tips on migrating a Python codebase from 2.1 -> 2.7.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    A good way is to use macport to install the different version of pythons. It will have different versions of all packages for all versions of pythons that you want. They will be installed in /opt/local/.
    So in Eclipse with PyDev for a particular project you can right click into the name of the project -> properties: There, in the left you choose PyDev – Interpreter/Grammar. And you click the link Click here to configure an interpreter not lister. You click on new on the top right of the new window. You give the name of the version of python you want to create the interpreter for, if you have already installed it with all required package through macport. And in the field Intepreter Executable you give the path: /opt/local/bin/pythonX.X .
    After, in the previous option window: PyDev – Intepreter/Grammar, you can choose in the Interpreter menu the python version that you just installed.

    For the shell, and the default path pointing to /usr/bin/python you must use: python_select (installed through macport) instead of playing with the env variables. Afterward you can use macport to update/install new packages, make sure everything is alway clean.

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