BLT installation woes under W98 (Python 2.1)

[Peter Brown]

I'm new to Python, and am trying to install Pmw and BLT under Windows
98.  Pmw appears to install OK.  BLT is another story, however.  As
others have noted before in this group, the Tcl directory structure
under Python is different from the Tcl directory structure under Tcl,
with consequent problems installing extension-like animals (well, I've
seen people ask about BLT, anyway).  Is there a known way to install
BLT into the Tcl directory structure under C:\Python21?  Should I be
compiling BLT and/or Tcl from scratch?  If so, how would I tell Python
to use the Tcl I just made, not the Tcl it came with?

Glancing back through the newsgroup archives shows that this question
seems to come up every month or two (candidate for a FAQ/howto?).
I've only seen one answer, though, from Norman Charnley--I tried what
he suggested (or what I *thought* he was suggesting, anyway), and it
didn't work for me.

OTOH, others seem to post (with about the same frequency) saying, "I
installed BLT, but now I have this other problem...", so obviously
*some* folks are figuring this out.

I'll be happy to post an answer, if I can get one that works :-).

Peace,
--Peter