>With Python 2.7.1 new in Lion as default python version

Not sure what the story is with that. 'man python' says: "The current supported versions are 2.6 and 2.7, with the default being 2.6."    Either the man page is out of date, or my system is not in the default configuration.  It would be helpful if someone else with Lion could check the default python version.

>1) Could you look up the man page for python ('man python' in the terminal) whether 
>  on OS X Lion it still supports the same environment variables as on Snow Leopard?

Yes, it appears so:

" Versions 2.6 and 2.7 support 64-bit execution (which is on by default).
Like the version of Python, the python command can select between 32 and 64-bit execution (when both are available).  Use:
           % defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Prefer-32-Bit -bool yes
     to make 32-bit execution the user default."


>2) For testing, could you use the diff I attached in comment #7[...]

Trace is copied below.  

Default Encoding: ascii
----------------------------------------
Filesystem Encoding: utf-8
----------------------------------------
Platform: darwin
----------------------------------------
Python sys.version_info: 2.6.6
Python sys.version: 
2.6.6 (r266:84292, Jun 16 2011, 16:59:17) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)]
----------------------------------------
Python sys.executable: 
	/usr/bin/python
Python sys.exec_prefix: 
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6
Python sys.prefix: 
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6
----------------------------------------
lxml path: /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/python/site-packages/i386/2.6/lxml
LXML_VERSION: 2.1.3.0
LIBXML_VERSION: 2.7.3
LIBXML_COMPILED_VERSION: 2.7.1
LIBXSLT_VERSION: 1.1.24
LIBXSLT_COMPILED_VERSION: 1.1.24
----------------------------------------
numpy path: /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/python/site-packages/i386/2.6/numpy
numpy version: 1.3.0.dev5986
----------------------------------------
sys.path: 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/extensions
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/extensions
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/python/site-packages/i386/2.6
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python26.zip
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/plat-darwin
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/plat-mac
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/lib-tk
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/lib-old
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload
	/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages
	/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/PyObjC
----------------------------------------
os.environ: 
FONTCONFIG_PATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/etc/fonts
INKSCAPE_SHAREDIR 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources
ASPELL_CONF 
	prefix /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources;
VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT 
	yes
SHELL 
	/bin/bash
GTK_EXE_PREFIX 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources
LOGNAME 
	oskay
USER 
	oskay
HOME 
	/Users/oskay
PATH 
	/usr/bin:/usr/texbin:/opt/local/bin:/sw/bin/:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:/usr/local/bin:/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
DISPLAY 
	/tmp/launch-kUTuIq/org.x:0
LANG 
	.UTF-8
Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render 
	/tmp/launch-ShNaTd/Render
VERSIONER_PYTHON_VERSION 
	2.6
SHLVL 
	0
GNOME_VFS_MODULE_CONFIG_PATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules
GTK_DATA_PREFIX 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources
MAGICK_CODER_FILTER_PATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/lib/ImageMagick-6.6.7/modules-Q16/filters
PYTHONPATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/extensions:/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/python/site-packages/i386/2.6
SSH_AUTH_SOCK 
	/tmp/launch-Bq55Uv/Listeners
MAGICK_CONFIGURE_PATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/lib/ImageMagick-6.6.7/config:/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/share/ImageMagick-6.6.7/config
PANGO_RC_FILE 
	/Users/oskay/.inkscape-etc/pangorc
VERSION 
	7
GTK2_RC_FILES 
	/Users/oskay/.inkscape-etc/gtkrc
INKSCAPE_LOCALEDIR 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/locale
TMPDIR 
	/var/folders/j3/814wjf417nq6319nk1rstkx40000gn/T/
INKSCAPE_PLUGINDIR 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/lib/inkscape
GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE 
	/Users/oskay/.inkscape-etc/gdk-pixbuf.loaders
MAGICK_CODER_MODULE_PATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/lib/ImageMagick-6.6.7/modules-Q16/coders
GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE 
	/Users/oskay/.inkscape-etc/gtk.immodules
__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING 
	0x1F5:0:0
XDG_DATA_DIRS 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/share
PWD 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app
GNOME_VFS_MODULE_PATH 
	/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/lib/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules
COMMAND_MODE 
	legacy
----------------------------------------