FW: [Python-Dev] Windows installer pre-prelease

[David Ascher]

Forgot to cc: python-dev on my reply to Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: David Ascher [mailto:DavidA@ActiveState.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:23 PM
To: Greg Stein
Subject: RE: [Python-Dev] Windows installer pre-prelease


> Valid point. But there are other solutions, too. VC distributes a thing
> named "VCVARS.BAT" to set up paths and other environ vars. Python could
> certainly do the same thing (to overcome the embedded-space issue).

I hate VCVARS -- it doesn't work from my Cygnus shell, it has to be invoked
by the user as opposed to automatically started by the installer, etc.

> Depends on the audience of that standard. Programmers: yah. Consumers?
> They just want the damn thing to work like they expect it to. That
> expectation is usually "I can find my programs in Program Files."

In my experience, the /Program Files location works fine for tools which
have strictly GUI interfaces and which are launched by the Start menu or
other GUI mechanisms.  Anything which you might need to invoke at the
command line lives best in a non-space-containing path, IMO of course.

--david