Re: [Python-Dev] Add python.exe to PATH environment variable

Mark Hammond <mhammond <at> skippinet.com.au> writes:

I mean that many Windows use the PATH, and as such, may fail if a new directory is added to the PATH that contains a DLL they indirectly use.

Then it's just a matter of not putting any DLLs in those directories, isn't it?

If I *did* expect other programs to be able to find a 'python.exe', I'm not sure I'd want to risk that installing a later version of Python will change what Python is found.

Most Linux distributions solve that by installing binaries named /usr/bin/python2.4, /usr/bin/python2.5, etc., and making /usr/bin/python a symlink to one of those. Thus if a program relies on particular Python version, it can just use a specific executable rather than a generic one.