Martin,<br><br>What is the rationale behind using an MSI ? Has anyone attempted to create a Python installer using something a bit simpler, like NSIS [<a href="http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page">http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page</a>]? If not, what are the reasons?<br>
<br>Joe<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 3:03 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:martin@v.loewis.de">martin@v.loewis.de</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
> I always wondered why it was necessary to write msi.py in the first<br>
> place. Maintaining it is surely a big effort and requires understanding<br>
> of a dark library which a few people have (IMO it's a much higher effort<br>
> than setting up automated tests in a bunch of VM, which you said is "not<br>
> worth it").<br>
><br>
> There are plenty of MSI installer generator programs<br>
<br>
Originally it was written because none of the MSI generator programs<br>
were capable of packaging Python. In particular, none was capable of<br>
creating 64-bit packages (which were first needed to create the<br>
Itanium packages).<br>
<br>
> and Python's needs<br>
> do not seem so weird to require a custom MSI generator.<br>
<br>
Python's needs are fairly weird, so I'm very skeptical that any other<br>
generator is capable of doing what msi.py does (or, if it was capable<br>
of doing that, that it was then any simpler than msi.py).<br>
<br>
The critical part is that you need a powerful way to specify what files<br>
to package (having to select them in a UI is unacceptable, as the set<br>
of files constantly changes - the current generator can cope with many<br>
types of file additions without needing any change).<br>
<br>
> I'm sure the<br>
> Python Software Foundation would easily get a free license of one of the<br>
> good commercial MSI installer generators.<br>
<br>
Can you recommend a specific one?<br>
<br>
In addition, I'm also skeptical wrt. commercial setup tools. We had been<br>
using Wise for a while, and it was a management problem because the<br>
license was only available on a single machine - so it was difficult<br>
for anybody else to jump in and do a release.<br>
<br>
> In short: if msi.py and the fact it breaks is part of the issue here,<br>
> it's very easy to solve in my opinion.<br>
<br>
I'm very skeptical that this statement is actually true.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
Regards,<br>
Martin<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Python-Dev mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Python-Dev@python.org">Python-Dev@python.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev" target="_blank">http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev</a><br>
Unsubscribe: <a href="http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/josepharmbruster%40gmail.com" target="_blank">http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/josepharmbruster%40gmail.com</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br>