[Python-Dev] Finally fix installer to add Python to %PATH% on Windows

[Paul Moore]

On 6 February 2011 15:35, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 1:27 AM, Chris Withers <chris at simplistix.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 06/02/2011 15:25, Brian Curtin wrote:
>>>
>>> So put the new path before the old path, or replace it? The current
>>> patch appends to the end.
>>
>> I believe the last path wins in Windows land, so that would be fine.
>
> Not that I've ever experienced. Most installers just make sure to
> insert entries at the beginning so "last installed" wins.

... and "at the beginning" can be a pain due to unintended overriding
of existing user commands (not likely in the case of Python, where
there's only python, pythonw, w9xpopen and various bdist_wininst
"RemoveXXX" commands, but still possible).

"Before any existing Python directories, otherwise at the end" is the
closest to what I suspect most users want (certainly it matches my
preferences, and anything else would have me manually editing PATH
anyway, so is of no use to me in practice).

Paul.