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I'm writing a Cocoa application that uses Python to perform some calculations and data manipulation. I've got an Objective-C class that I'm using to run the Python scripts via the Python API. I can currently call Python with no problem using the API and linking to Python.framework.

I'm looking at how to package the code together now. My understanding is that the python code would be included as part of the .app bundle, possibly in the Resources folder. I've run into py2app being discussed many places, but it appears to be only used if your app is written wholly in Python; I don't think this is the solution to my problem. How do I properly package the code with my app? Can I send the .pyc instead of the .py file?

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You can use py2app to compile an NSBundle which can be loaded at runtime (you could add this loadable bundle to your app bundle's PlugIns/ folder). However, while initially quite easy to get working, there appears to be a bug in PyObjC or py2app that leads to significant memory leaks depending on the API of your plugin (see http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=1982104&group_id=14534&atid=114534).

The harder but safer approach is to link against the Python.framework. You can then keep your .py files in the app bundle's Resources/ directory and load them via the standard CPython embedding API.

Don't include only the .pyc files. The pyc format is an implementation detail that you shouldn't rely upon for future Python versions.

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I'm already using the Python.framework technique- I just hadn't yet discovered how to find the path to them, which is [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:ofType:]. Thanks for the additional details.
@Barry, if you're statically linking against Python.framework to build a custom interpreter into your app, and the version of the framework currently being used works with *.pyc files, won't your custom interpreter 'always work' with those pyc files? (Since the compatibility is compiled in with the static library) I ask because I'm hoping to obfuscate/protect the .py I'm shipping with a commercial product, and part of that strategy was to eliminate the .py files. Thanks for any insight you can provide.
@Dave yes, you're probably right about .pyc files (though this is beyond my recent memory of CPython details). However, .pyc files are hardly obfuscated in the sense of protecting trade secrets. You may need to get facier with a custom importer and a truly obfuscated (encrypted?) storage format.

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