[Distutils] chicken and egg?

[Jack Jansen]

On 24-okt-03, at 13:47, amk at amk.ca wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 24, 2003 at 12:29:29PM +0200, gfa2c wrote:
>> When I try to install distutils
>> with its setup.py, it ends in error
>> because something is missing.
>
> You're very vague about the problem.  I'll take a leap in the dark and 
> guess
> that you're on Windows; a very common problem is that most Windows 
> machines
> don't have a compiler installed, so you're unable to install any Python
> package that includes a C extension.  The solution is to get a 
> compiler,
> unsurprisingly, or find a binary installer of the package.

Whether or not this is the original problem: it definitely deserves a 
good
and clear error message. Especially people who don't have a development
system installed probably won't know what they miss, or what a 
development
system is, or why they would need one.
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman