[Python-Dev] Windows installers and %PATH%

[Andrew Pennebaker]

I mentioned PYTHONROOT\Script because of the distribute package, which adds
PYTHONROOT\Script\easy_install.exe.

My mistake if \Script is created by distribute and not Python. Then my beef
is with distribute for not adding its binaries to PATH--how else would I use
easy_setup if not in a terminal?

Cheers,

Andrew Pennebaker
www.yellosoft.us

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Brian Curtin <brian.curtin at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 23:04, Andrew Pennebaker <
> andrew.pennebaker at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Please have the Windows installers add the Python installation directory
>> to the PATH environment variable.
>
>
> The http://bugs.python.org bug tracker is a better place for feature
> requests like this, of which there have been several over the years. This
> has become a hotter topic lately with several discussions around the
> community, and a PEP to provide some similar functionality. I've talked with
> several educators/trainers around and the lack of a Path installation is the
> #1 thing that bites their newcomers, and it's an issue that bites them
> before they've even begun to learn.
>
> Many newbies dive in without knowing that they must manually add
>> C:\PythonXY to PATH. It's yak shaving, something perfectly automatable that
>> should have been done by the installers way back in Python 1.0.
>>
>> Please also add PYTHONROOT\Scripts. It's where cool things like
>> easy_install.exe are stored. More yak shaving.
>>
>
> A clean installation of Python includes no Scripts directory, so I'm not
> sure we should be polluting the Path with yet-to-exist directories. An
> approach could be to have packaging optionally add the scripts directory on
> the installation of a third-party package.
>
> The only potential downside to this is upsetting users who manage multiple
>> python installations. It's not a problem: they already manually adjust PATH
>> to their liking.
>>
>
> "Users who manage multiple python installations" is probably a very, very
> large number, so we have quite the audience to appease, and it actually is a
> problem. We should not go halfway on this feature and say "if it doesn't
> work perfectly, you're back to being on your own". I think the likely case
> is that any path addition feature will read the path, then offer to replace
> existing instances or append to the end.
>
> I haven't yet done any work on this, but my todo list for 3.3 includes
> adding some path related features to the installer.
>
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