WeatherCat Version 3.1.3 Now Available

[Administrator]

We are pleased to announce the release of WeatherCat version 3.1.3.

This is a bug fix/maintenance release – changes are as follows:

1. Removed Wunderground webcam functionality as Wunderground announced discontinuance of the webcam service 21 Oct 2021 – https://support.weather.com/s/article/Webcam-hosting-service-is-discontinued-effective-October-21-2021?language=en_US ).
2. Fix a warning shown on first launch on macOS 12 that WeatherCat needs to be updated (this is a Python 2 deprecation notice – if running on macOS 12 or later we now use Python 3 – see note below)
3. Fix for an issue where the background on basic gauges would always be white irrespective of the colour set in the preferences on macOS 11 or later.
4. Fix a crash that could happen when initialising the camera.

Note that from version 3.1.3 onwards, and if running on macOS 12, WeatherCat requires Python 3 to be installed on your system for some of its functionality. You may be asked to install it via a dialog box (this will only happen once) – this video shows the process.

WeatherCat V3.1.3 is available for immediate download or if you are running WeatherCat V3.0.0 or later, you can wait for the update notification within WeatherCat to auto update.

[elagache]

Thanks Stu!! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[rrsum]

I have two questions about the new release 3.1.3, especially since I keep getting warned by WeatherCat that a new update is available.

First, I run WeatherCat on a relatively new iMac and system preferences tells me I have the latest version of the OS installed, namely 12.2.1.  This means I should NOT upgrade untill 12.3 is installed, despite the warnings to update?

Second, I have never installed python, although it may have been installed via a separate package.  The current version is 2.7.18, although python 3 is installed as 'python3'.  If that remains the same through the next OS upgrade, will WeatherCat work with that, or will a symlink be required?

Thanks in advance (and a great piece of software)!

Rick

[xairbusdriver]

I have never installed python

You did, at least through OS 11, but you never realized it. It was simply done 'behind your back'. With Monterey, Apple has stopped installing several scripting 'languages' such as Python. WC uses a Python script, and the Dev ha musts updated it to work with version 3. Therefore, to use WC with Monterey and later OS X versions, we must now install it manually.

The current version is 2.7.18

Depends on what you call "current". If that's the version you have installed, that only means it was installed prior to Monterey. According to the folks who maintain Python (who are not Apple, BTW) the current version is 3.10.2. Version 2 has been replaced by version 3. You can read about the "Sunsetting" of version 2 at https://www.python.org/doc/sunset-python-2/

[rrsum]

I understand all the facts brought up by xairbusdriver, but it still doesn't answer my two questions.  Indeed, the sunset of 2.7 is more critical on the FreeBSD servers I administer, especially because mailman2 depends on it, but my guess is that Apple will have to include a version of python and it will be a version 3 implementation. So let me ask my first question differently: has anyone installed version 3.1.3 successfully on OS version 12.2.1?

This brings up an interesting quandary.   Suppose WeatherCat can't be installed on OS 12.2.1.  If one installs OS 12.3, and even if python 3 is included as 'python', won't the existing WeatherCat fail to run, and then an 'update' to an existing app be impossible, requiring a full install?

However all this works out, I do think the issues need be clarified.

Thanks, Rick

[The Grand Poohbah]

WeatherCat 3.1.3 was crashing soon after I updated to Monterey 12.3.1 on my MINI M1. The message was "The 'python3' command requires the command line developer tools. Would you like to install the tools now?" When I clicked "install" it started a download that was estimated to be 95 hours(!) That was too weird for me, do I did some searching and found the following web site: /Users/grand/Desktop/Installing Python 3 on Mac OS X — The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python.webloc

I downloaded the Command Line Tools from the link provided in the web site, it took about 30 minutes, and installed the package. That seems to solve the problem.

[jf-i2r]

Thanks Stu!! 

nice with my old El Capitan 

cheers jean fred