Upgrading to Python 3.12 and building a universal app (Intel + Apple Silicon)

[justvanrossum]

The build works on both Intel and Apple Silicon: https://github.com/typemytype/drawbot/actions/runs/7681596610

import sys, platform
print(sys.version)
print(platform.platform())

Intel:

3.12.1 (v3.12.1:2305ca5144, Dec  7 2023, 17:23:39) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)]
macOS-14.2.1-x86_64-i386-64bit

Apple Silicon:

3.12.1 (v3.12.1:2305ca5144, Dec  7 2023, 17:23:38) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)]
macOS-14.2.1-arm64-arm-64bit

[justvanrossum]

gif and mp4 export work, but the embedded tools are still Intel. We should track down Universal builds for ffmpeg, gifsicle, potrace, etc.

[justvanrossum]

If it wasn't for PIL, DrawBot would still run on macOS 10.10...

3.12.1 (v3.12.1:2305ca5144, Dec  7 2023, 17:23:39) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)]
macOS-10.10.5-x86_64-i386-64bit

I'm trying to find out what it is lowest macOS that current PIL/Pillow is expected to run on: https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/issues/6862#issuecomment-1913552472

[justvanrossum]

With Pillow 10.1.0, DrawBot actually works on macOS 10.10:

[justvanrossum]

Hm, this seems an official source for ffmpeg, and they don't seem to intend to provide Apple Silicon binaries: https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/apple-silicon-arm

Tangentially, I found this blog post that shows how to speed up h264 encoding on Apple Silicon: https://www.learnwithjason.dev/blog/hardware-acceleration-ffmpeg-apple-silicon/

[typemytype]

super mega cool!!

that statement related to ffmpeg seems not sustainable in the long run... there will be no intel mac in a few years...

a quick test leads to this error, it will not be the only one I guess:

from fontTools import bezierTools

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<untitled>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name 'bezierTools' from 'fontTools' (/private/var/folders/qy/sv345q756dg_jsx6jg2tf6240000gn/T/AppTranslocation/874D5ABD-17F6-463E-9CCB-6A63FAA449DB/d/DrawBot.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python3.12/fontTools/__init__.py)

this happens cause pip checks the arch, you force the arch somewhere, if I remember it correctly

[justvanrossum]

a quick test leads to this error

Argh yes, it is because if x84 and universal2 wheels are available, it picks x84 :(

• https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/11573
• https://github.com/pypa/packaging/issues/381

We may have to work around it with a script downloading wheels from pypi directly.

[justvanrossum]

that statement related to ffmpeg seems not sustainable in the long run

Interesting (and sad) to see that providing binaries for this hugely successful tool seems to depend on one guy...

[justvanrossum]

I think this may be a possible approach:

• run pip install -r requirements.txt and capture the output
• find and parse all wheel filenames ([^\s]+.whl.metadata + packaging.utils.parse_wheel_filename())
• any wheel that is x86 or arm64 needs attention (we ignore "any" and "universal2"):
  • check the pypi json for the package + version
  • if there is a universal2 wheel, download it, write to location_for_special_universal_wheels/*.whl
  • else if there are x86 and arm64 wheels, download both and merge (delocate.fuse.fuse_wheels()), write to location_for_special_universal_wheels/*.whl
  • else: error
• pip install --force location_for_special_universal_wheels/*.whl

[justvanrossum]

I think this may be a possible approach

I did that and it seems to work correctly on M123 and Intel, down to macOS 10.10:

• https://github.com/typemytype/drawbot/actions/runs/7695536920

[justvanrossum]

@typemytype, this is ready for review/merge.