[Python-Dev] New Windows installer for Python 3.5

[Nick Coghlan]

On 5 January 2015 at 18:17, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5 January 2015 at 01:20, Steve Dower <Steve.Dower at microsoft.com> wrote:
>> I think this means the best way to make multiple versions work properly is to rename python.exe to python3.5.exe, then install the launcher as python.exe and python3.exe (with some logic to look at its own name) so it can resolve the right version. Maybe we can even extend the launcher to resolve launchers in Scripts (pip.exe, etc.) and have consistent rules there too?
>
> This was a big debate over on distutils-sig. I advocated "py -m pip"
> for portable use, but got basically nowhere. People want "pip" to
> work, for compatibility with Unix (and hence ease of documentation).

"pip" is problematic on Linux as well (due to the pip/pip3 split at
the system level). Hence this section in the stdlib docs:
https://docs.python.org/3/installing/#work-with-multiple-versions-of-python-installed-in-parallel

> If we can't get PATH sorted out, we need to do something about this,
> IMO. I don't know what (believe me, I tried to find a solution)
> unfortunately.

I personally believe we should aim to make the "Windows" section in
the above link universal (i.e. working across *nix, Windows, and
virtual environments). That's the only one that can feasibly be made
universal - all the other alternatives are already known to be
incompatible with particular scenarios.

It's a fair bit of work to make it happen though, so it will likely
remain a "wish list" item unless someone gets particularly inspired to
do something about it :)

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia