[Python-Dev] Why does the Windows installer use the shortname form of the install directory?

[Tim Peters]

[Moore, Paul]
> I just installed Python 2.2.2b1 (replacing ActiveState Python)
> and I notice that the installer uses the shortname form of the
> Python install directory. This appears in sys.path, in file
> associations (and hence in sys.argv[0]), and in lots of other
> places in the registry, not all of which I follow the reasons for.
>
> My Python install directory was C:\Applications\Python - not the
> default, but also not containing spaces (which I guess could be a
> problem for some scripts). So the short form should not be
> necessary. I've fixed the problem manually by hacking the
> registry, but it's not something I feel comfortable with...

I must have missed what "the problem" is.  What is the problem?  Path
components generally have two distinct names on Windows.  That's how the OS
works -- we didn't invent this madness <wink>.

> Would it be possible for the installer to use the long filename
> form

Yes, but I won't make that change, because we *used* to do it that way and
it confused newbies endlessly, mostly because of embedded spaces.  By
default, the installer suggests an 8.3 name so that nobody can get confused.
Pick a non-8.3 name instead, and two distinct names are a fact of Windows
Life you have to live with.

> (at least in cases where the install path does not contain spaces)?

I don't know that the WISE scripting language is capable of making this
distinction, and in the absence of an actual problem I'm not going to spend
time digging into it.  It's certainly too late to make this kind of change
in the 2.2 line, so if a volunteer appears who cares enough to address it,
it would have to wait for 2.3.