[Python-Dev] Re: [Distutils] Questions about distutils strategy

James C. Ahlstrom jim@interet.com
Thu, 09 Dec 1999 11:46:35 -0500


Skip Montanaro wrote:

> MS believes that Python is the application.  Those of us writing
> Python programs view those programs as the applications, not the Python
> interpreter per se.

I think this is a good point.  Windows app programmers (mostly)
view Python as part of their app and try it install it in their
app directory.  Unix installs Python as a system app in multiple
versions and users use PATH to pick a version.  Unix users view
the Python interpreter as a system service which is needed for
running their app.

I think this is because a Windows app is a visual program,
and the Python release compiles to a console app (not really
a visual program).  So all
(?most) Windows Python apps are custom mains with Python
as a component, but the stock python.exe is not the main.
This makes it difficult to document a way to install Python
in the Unix fashion, since all apps need their own binary main
and python15.dll is the only thing in common.

IMHO archive files can solve this a lot more simply.

JimA