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

[Vinay Sajip]

> I've been making changes to py.exe in hg.p.o, so I hope the standalone one
> is tracking. The msi for it as part of the official build can also
> standalone, so maybe we should merge the two?

> Hmm, sadly I don't think it is. Originally the standalone one was (I
> believe) provided by Vinay for people using Pythons that didn't have
> it bundled, and to add features (such as the new file extensions) on a
> quicker timescale than Python releases. But since he passed it to the
> pypa umbrella I don't think he's been keeping the two in sync. I've
> copied him in case I'm completely wrong on this.


Thanks for copying me in - I haven't been tracking changes to the launcher in hg.p.o purely because I have been really busy with consultancy work for the past few months, leading to reduced time available for open-source contributions. I intend to try and keep things synced up where feasible and when time permits, and your email has given me the heads-up to look and see what's changed in the hg.p.o version.
> Personally if we now have a standalone launcher MSI, I'd like to
> discontinue the external one completely, and officially publish the
> standalone launcher MSI on python.org as a service for users of older

> Pythons.

The standalone repo/installer is just there for older Pythons where it's not bundled (and also to allow trying out features independently of the Python release cycle, as you mentioned). If python.org will offer an unbundled MSI just to install the launcher on Pythons < 3.3, then I suppose my installer could be retired. I don't know if the hg.p.o. installer would be equivalent to the standalone one (e.g. when the standalone launcher is uninstalled, the user gets a chance to associate file extensions with one of the installed Pythons found on the system).

Off to read the whole thread on python-dev now ...

Regards,

Vinay Sajip