[Python-Dev] Integrate BeautifulSoup into stdlib?

[Mark Hammond]

On 25/03/2009 6:51 AM, "Martin v. Löwis" wrote:
>> Mike Driscoll did some work providing Windows installers for various
>> Python packages and extension modules, and people were amused that he
>> provided executable installers for pure Python libraries. But I saw that
>> as a sensible decision, since it meant that Windows users (and even
>> Windows Python application developers) used the same mechanism to
>> install everything.
>
> The Windows story is indeed sad, as none of the Windows packaging
> formats provides support for dependencies (MSI has some support,
> but as far as I understand it, it's pretty useless). But yes, for
> Windows, you want .exe or .msi installers, not something proprietary.

Isn't this discussion slightly at cross-purposes?

* py2exe doesn't create *installers*, just the target application.  It 
(poorly) manages dependencies on the build machine.  There doesn't seem 
to be a need for runtime dependency management in this tool.

* The creation of an *installer* is something quite different.  An 
installer for a py2exe based tool also doesn't need dependency 
management.  An installer for a pure-python package that made no attempt 
to bundle dependencies might be nice, but I don't quite see how that 
falls outside the scope of distutils/setuptools/etc.  In other words, I 
don't see why the installer can't bootstrap the 'normal' dependency 
management which would be used if the package was installed any other 
way or on other platforms.

* distutils already has the ability to create Windows installer 
executables for pure-python apps/libs.  I agree it would be nice if it 
was an MSI but that is an implementation detail rather than 
implementation requirement.  How were Mike's packages fundamentally 
different than that?

Cheers,

Mark