[Distutils] pre-pre PEP: wininst improvements

[Thomas Heller]

From: "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@lemburg.com>
> Thomas Heller wrote:
> > 
> > It seems there are a lot of wishes for wininst, maybe
> > it is time to write a bdist_wininst PEP?
> > 
> > What I have collected in my mind:
> > 
> > - The default installation directory should be \Python\Lib\site-packages
> >   instead of \Python.
> > 
> > - The installer should be able to install in a directory
> >   supplied by the user, comparable to what
> >   'python setup.py --root <whatever>' does.
> > 
> > - bdist_wininst should have more options to change
> >   the appearane of the installer: Background bitmap
> >   instead of simply displaying the installation title,
> >   possibility to change the 'python powered' bitmap
> >   into one supplied by the packager.
> 
> Some more wishes:
> 
> * there should be a way to add a license agreement page
>   (which is then shown in case a license is passed to the
>   installer via a new option --license-agreement)
> 
OK.

> * the strings shown by the dialogs should come from some
>   .ini file which the maintainer can then change; this would
>   also allow limited i18n
> 
I understand it this way: The packager supplies this ini-file
with german or spanish strings for example, to build a german
resp. a spanish localized installer?

> > - bdist_wininst should collect uninstall information
> >   and register an uninstaller in the windows registry.
> > 
> > - bdist_wininst could create shortcuts in the start menu
> >   and on the desktop for scripts ('applications') installed.
> 
> Would these be the ones you put into scripts or do we need
> a new option for application entry points ?

Currently I think the 'scripts' arguments to the setup function
would be the entry points.

The question is: Does distutils metainfo provide all the information
we need or not?

Sooner or later someone would want the 'installer' to run a supplied
python script which would then create shortcuts and so on.

The installer (which embeds python) could export some API do do this
and run the installation script after installing the files.
>  
> > (I've left out problems which should be more or less
> > solved by distutils: Installation of documentation,...)
> 
> +1 on all of these.
> 
> -- 
> Marc-Andre Lemburg

Thomas