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

[Paul Moore]

On 13 February 2015 at 14:27, Steve Dower <Steve.Dower at microsoft.com> wrote:
> If py.exe starts defaulting to whatever is on PATH then I don't see the
> point of it. Knowing that you'll get the latest 2.x version by default is
> quite handy (I'd be quite okay changing that to 3.x, though it is specified
> in the original PEP). For me, the point of py.exe is to be able to ignore
> PATH completely.

It does seem a bit bizarre to me that a launcher shipped with Python 3
defaults to using Python 2 if it's available. I'd like to see that
change, but as it's specified in the original PEP I guess it might
meet with some pushback :-(

> Adding more commands to the launcher args (eg. -ipy) will make the parsing
> far more complex, especially when deciding which args to consume and which
> to forward. I think you can make a copy of the launcher called ipy.exe and
> add ipy.ini with the path to IronPython in it as default.

Well, Vinay has this functionality already available in his fork, so
it's not impossible. But whether or not it's added I do think that all
distributed versions of py.exe should have the same functionality, so
either the CPython version should add it or Vinay should remove it (or
rename his version and describe it as an *enhanced* version of the
py.exe launcher, rather than as a *standalone* version...)

I'm +0 on the functionality personally - I quite like the idea, but
I've no real need for it and I've lived without it long enough now.

Paul