[Python-Dev] Python install layout and the PATH on win32 (Rationale part 1: Regularizing the layout)

[Brian Curtin]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 07:19, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 4:35 AM, PJ Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
>> Just dumping things in a directory adjacent to the corresponding scripts is
>> the original virtualenv, and it still works just dandy -- most people just
>> don't *know* this.  (And again, if there are tools out there that *don't*
>> support single-directory virtualenvs, the best answer is probably to fix
>> them.)
>
> Not to mention that CPython gained native support for that layout in
> 2.6 via __main__.py files (although I stuffed up and forgot to add it
> to the What's New before the release).
>
> I'll chime in on the -1 side here as well. If you want *easy*
> cross-platform execution of __main__, use the -m switch.

I love the -m option but what does it have to do with unifying the
install layout? One is about executing __main__ and one is about a
directory structure.

> Indeed, avoiding such cross-platform  inconsistencies with
> regards to the location of stdlib modules was one of the major
> arguments in favour of adding the original incarnation of the switch
> way back in Python 2.4.

Ok, so it is about directory structure, but about the standard
library. Since part of this proposal is about Scripts vs. bin, how
does -m help you there?