[tl;dr? see bottom]
Python on OS X has always been somewhat of an abomination in that it's split up and spread out all across the system. Some in /usr, some in /Library/Python, some /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework.
Now, as I understand it, the framework is supposed to contain the Python distribution, i.e. the bits and pieces that aren't going to change. An example would be headers, the standard library, the binary images, etc.
So as a developer of a sort-of-popular Python C extension, I think myself to be pretty good at the OS X ecosystem and how to compile Python extensions on it. It wasn't a month ago that Apple decided to skip on QA, breaking C extension building across the board.
It's broken in yet a new way though, as Apple seem to have decided to remove the better part of the Python distribution. Take a look at the include/ directory:
$ ls -l /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/include/python2.6
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 30K Jun 25 2010 pyconfig.h
Missing something? The Python.h header perhaps? What's more, I had woes with zc.buildout because it couldn't find site.py... Have a look-see:
$ python -c 'print __import__("site").__file__'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site.pyc
$ ls -l /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site.py*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 20K May 17 15:40 /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site.pyc
Missing something? The site.py original perhaps?
All in all, it seems Apple are stripping out vital develop