[Python-Dev] Distutils2 scripts

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> Assume, for the sake of the argument, that we patched the
> MSI so it (optionally) added the installing version of Python
> (and, optionally ./scripts) to the PATH. What, then, do we
> do with existing PATH entries which point to older/other Python
> installations? Option (a) says: clear them
> all out, because it's meaningless having more than one entry
> with a python.exe on it and the one we want must be this one
> because we've just ticked a box to say so. Option (b) says:
> don't mess with other entries on the PATH; it's not done.

That, too. For the registry settings, overwriting them is an
easy choice: it was the other installer that wrote the original
entries (*very* likely so), so we "own" them and we can overwrite
them. Running a repair installation on the original installer
will revert that.

With the PATH entry, it's not such an easy choice: the old entry may
have been manually added, or it may have been added by the previous
installer. Replacing it in the second case is again a straight-forward
choice, but we don't know (unless we record somewhere - in the registry
- that we added a PATH entry - perhaps an MSI Feature entry could tell
us).

Regards,
Martin