VEnvDotApp

On a Mac, if you want to access the GUI, or various other mac-specific APIs, your executable needs to be present in a bundle. This can be an "app bundle" or a "framework bundle". The System python, python.org python, Homebrew Python, and pyenv python (with a little work) are all so-called "framework builds" which include such a bundle.

To build a real bundle, something that you can distribute to someone else, you probably want to use py2app. However, if you just want to pip install a tool that somebody else wrote which happens to want to present some GUI elements, or you want to develop something of your own in a virtualenv without setting up the requisite py2app infrastructure (including a setup.py, etc), this might be the tool for you.

How to use it

If you're using someone else's code and you just want to make a given virtualenv bundle-y, just pip install venvdotapp && venvdotapp.

For example:

$ mktempenv
...
$ pip install wxpython
...
$ pycrust
This program needs access to the screen. Please run with a
Framework build of python, and only when you are logged in
on the main display of your Mac.
$ pip install venvdotapp
...
$ venvdotapp
.../.virtualenvs/tmp-4337833f3452981/bin/tmp-4337833f3452981.app
$ pycrust
<A GUI Window Pops Up>

If you're writing your own program which requires an app bundle, you don't need to use the command-line script, just put the following at the very top of your main script:

from venvdotapp import require_bundle
require_bundle()

Note that this will raise an exception if your base Python is not a framework build and therefore not capable of displaying a GUI.