Running desktop code on Pythonista

n8henrie142

My question: What is the best way for Python to detect if it is running in Pythonista vs my computer?

I love using the dropbox module to sync my Pythonista code between devices, and it's nice to edit things from my computer every once in a while.

Many of my scripts serve the same basic function, but I've had to write a Pythonista version and a separate OSX version of the script, sometimes for minor differences such as getting credentials with keychain vs python-keyring.

Because Pythonista seems to ignore my shebang, it seems like it would be pretty easy to get a single script running on both platforms without much effort, at least in some cases.

So far, my best answer is something like:
<html><pre>
import sys
if sys.platform == 'unknown':
# execute pythonista specific code here, e.g:
# import keychain
# mypass = keychain.get_password()
pass
elif sys.platform == 'darwin':
# execute osx specific code here, e.g:
# import keyring
# mypass = keyring.backends.OS_X.Keyring.get_password()
pass
elif sys.platform == 'linux2':
# etc
pass
</pre></html>
The only think I don't care for is that sys.platform is 'unknown' -- which might be true for other platforms I haven't explored yet (Android or something).

Other options:

import platform; platform.system(); # returns 'Darwin' on both iOS and OSX, won't work
import os; os.name; # returns posix on both, won't work

Another that might work:
import os
os.uname()

Returns some device-specific information such as the local hostname, which wouldn't be terribly helpful (would work on one iOS device but not the others), but also some kernel information that could be used (but might change as the OS gets updated). E.g. if os.uname()[2] == '12.4.0'

So far, I think the sys.platform == 'unknown' is the best choice I have, but I wanted to see if anyone had other thoughts or options. Thanks for any help, ahead of time.

n8henrie142

Man, I really wish we had gfm style codeblocks... indentation not showing up above in the code.
EDIT: Fixed with html and pre. Thanks to ccc. Still wish for the gfm :)

ccc

I have not done extensive testing on numerous types of machines but you might try:

import platform

if platform.system() == 'Darwin':
    if platform.machine().startswith('iP'):
        print('You are running on iOS!')
    else:
        print('You are running on Mac OS X!')
else:
    print('Please upgrade to a real computer and then press any key to continue...')

Machines starting in 'iP' would include iPhone, iPad, iPod but NOT iMac, iBook, iBook Pro.

mintyfresh190

@n8henrie Why don't you just use a <code>try...except</code> to import one of the Pythonista specific modules as a test?

n8henrie142

Good thoughts, thanks to both.

DennisNg141

import platform

print "platform.system() is -"+platform.system()+""

print "platform.machine() is -"+platform.machine()+""