[Python-Dev] [PEPs] Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream

[Michael Foord]

On 07/03/2011 01:18, Mark Hammond wrote:
> [snip...]
> That said though, I'm only -0 on python2.exe/python3.exe - I don't 
> think it will hurt, but also don't think it will help that much in 
> practice. It may also turn out to be unnecessary should a "complete" 
> solution be implemented - eg, a "python launcher" which (a) read the 
> shebang lines and (b) allowed something like "python -3" on the 
> command-line would render both python3.exe and requests to have 
> multiple installed Python versions on the PATH redundant.
>

A python launcher as you describe is a *great* idea.

A few concerns:

* we're missing an opportunity to do something easy (Martin is happy to 
modify the installer and says it is easy) for something that may or may 
not happen

* will you call it python.exe? will it be installed by the python 
installer?

     - I doubt calling it python.exe will fly, but I'm not sure. If so 
what will you call what is currently 'python.exe'? - if not then "python 
foo.py" on the command line will *still* not work...

     - it will still have to be installed on the PATH, but I guess 
System32 will do for that - users without admin rights will still have 
to modify their PATH manually and place it somewhere else

* we're (yet again) making instructions for running stuff on Windows 
*different* to other platforms (and making tutorials written for other 
pythons "not work" in certain ways)

* as I work with multiple platforms it would be really nice if the same 
invocations worked across all of them - whilst I say again that I really 
like the idea of the launcher it doesn't conflict with the other 
suggestions (creating multiple binaries) and as you (Mark) say it 
wouldn't hurt...

So why not do both? We could create the extra binaries to bring Python 
on Windows inline with the unix conventions for command line 
invocations, and the new launcher can follow on as a nice addition.

Note that the discussions about the Python installer adding to the PATH 
won't be *ended* by the creation of the installer. A typical install on 
a Unix-like system adds various other utilities to the path that merely 
adding the top-level of your Python install on Windows still doesn't 
add. In particular distutils installed scripts go into a subdirectory of 
your Python install.

All the best,

Michael Foord

> Cheers,
>
> Mark


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