[Distutils] bdist_wininst

[Moore, Paul]

From: Pete Shinners [mailto:pete@visionart.com]
>
> > * no documentation files are installed -- is there a way to get
> >   those installed somewhere
> 
> mmm, a python standard location for documentation would be a
> big help. all my docs are currently in HTML, but i'm sure many
> people are using a variety of formats. nonetheless, if python
> had a standard format/location for documentation i think the
> all users would benefit. perhaps distutils laying out some sort
> of resonable standard on its own would be enough to get the
> whole community to adopt it?
> (of course, some documentation browsing tools in python would
> be a nice followup)

Agreed, this would be good. It's not a distutils issue as such, but if the
distutils package offered a standard for *where* documentation went, it
might help promote some discussion and/or action on defining what *form*
documentation should take, etc.

Perl currently has a big win here, with POD. Like it or loathe it, it's
guaranteed to work for pretty much everything - a bit like man on Unix...

> > * the installer install directly into \Python20 -- shouldn't
> >   it install to \Python20\Lib ? What's the standard here on 
> >   Windows ?
> 
> distutils on windows always installs to this directory. bdist or
> otherwise. i don't see any need for change?

I asked this once before. I gather that it's a Guido-mandated standard. I
dislike it intensely, however. I think that user-installed modules should be
segregated from standard ones. The obvious place is
<PythonDir>\Lib\site-packages. But that needs site.py to change to handle
this directory on Windows, as well as on Unix (I see no logic to why it
doesn't already). At the very least, <PythonDir>\Local would be better, with
distutils creating the directory, and probably adding a Local.pth, if it
doesn't already exist.

I hate this default so much that I *always* download sources, and do python
setup.py build, and then install by hand. This is stupid.

At the absolute minimum, the install target should allow specifying an
alternative target. And the wininst installer needs to offer the user a
choice of install directory.

<end rant>

Paul.