[Python-Dev] PEP 370 - per-user scripts directory on Windows

[Paul Moore]

On 10 February 2015 at 20:50, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10 February 2015 at 17:45, Steve Dower <Steve.Dower at microsoft.com> wrote:
>> This is yet another attempt to try and change user behaviour, which I'm not thrilled
>> about, but I'm really starting to feel that this is the best way out of a bad situation.
>> It differs from the solutions used on Linux, though there may be some value in this
>> approach there too. Thought/votes/suggestions?
>
> I have to admit, I agree with you. But before the "Add Python to PATH"
> option was added to the installer, we repeatedly got requests for it
> and it was apparently a constant source of confusion for beginners. If
> we're going to revert that change, we'll need to be very careful how
> we present it.

Drat - hit "Send" too soon.

Also, the proposed scripts won't be on PATH, so users will have to run
them using explicit paths, which is both inconvenient and poses a
discoverability issue (Tools/scripts/win_add2path.py has been round
for ages, but AFAIK hardly anyone uses it). I wonder if there's a way
to get the launcher (py.exe) to help? For powershell, we could have
"py --setpath" write the appropriate path setting command to stdout,
and users could use "Invoke-Expression $(py --setpath)", for example.
That's a bit clumsy, and doesn't work for cmd.exe, but maybe there's
possibilities... Essentially, py.exe is the only command guaranteed to
be on PATH for any install (or is it? for a user install, is it stuck
somewhere in the user's APPDATA?)

It's fair enough to say that installers shouldn't be in the business
of messing with PATH, but nevertheless, people expect to run an
installer and have the installed programs available for use. Command
line utilities like Mercurial do it, so people will expect Python to.
Unfortunately.

Sorry, all problems, no real answers here.
Paul