[Distutils] bdist_wininst

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Thomas Heller wrote:
> 
> MAL wrote:
> > > > * the installer install directly into \Python20 -- shouldn't
> > > >   it install to \Python20\Lib ? What's the standard here on Windows ?
> > > This is the standard on windows. \Python20\Lib is treated as location
> > > for modules belonging to core python.
> > > Note that this behaviour has one serious consequence:
> > > Since the distutils distributed with python are in \python20\lib\distutils,
> > > and installing a new version of distutils will install in \python20\distutils,
> > > and c:\python20\lib appears in sys.path *before* c:\python20,
> > > it requires special actions to actually *use* this newly
> > > installed distutils: The user has to delete or renamed or otherwise
> > > disable the directory \python20\lib\distutils.
> >
> > Hmm, I think we should at least install the packages or
> > modules in a special subdir of \Python -- we wouldn't want
> > to clutter up the base installation directory with single
> > modules or other third packages, or would we ?
> IIRC there has been some discussion about this in the archives,
> and the current scheme was what Guido wanted.

This doesn't seem right... simply dropping modules or packages
into \Python will sooner or later cause trouble.
 
> >
> > > > * the installer doesn't register itself in the Windows Software
> > > >   registry -- an uninstall is not possible (this would be *very*
> > > >   nice to have)
> > > This is something I have in my mind for a long time, but
> > > since distutils itself does not care about uninstalling I've never
> > > done it. The hooks are all there in wininst: A callback is called
> > > for every action taken on the filesystem during installation. It
> > > would be easy to write a log file which could be used for uninstallation.
> >
> > Would be "nice to have" for 2.1 ;-) A way to set the installer
> > background bitmap and the one shown in the install dialog would
> > also be nice :)
> What's the exact schedule for 2.1?

Last I heard, alpha 1 will ship tomorrow.
 
> I have implemented a '--bitmap' option for bdist_wininst,
> which allows to replace the 'python powered' bitmap with a custom one.

Cool.

> I'm not yet convinced that we need a way to change the background bitmap
> because there isn't any ;-)

Ok, but at least the text should be changeable :) Bitmaps would
still be nice, though.
 
> Would you like to test it?
> Shall I send you a windows installer for this patched distutils version?

Yes, please.
 
> I fear the uninstaller would take a little longer...

... as long as it's there by the time people will want to deinstall
a package, I don't think we have a problem ;-)

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
______________________________________________________________________
Company:                                        http://www.egenix.com/
Consulting:                                    http://www.lemburg.com/
Python Pages:                           http://www.lemburg.com/python/