> On 27/01/2010 11:21, Michael Foord wrote: > .. If a Python programmer wants > to create an application that is properly 'installed' on Windows then > the *right* thing to do is to create an installer - and that uses > infrastructure not provided by a language, but that is built into > Windows. Tools like Wix are used to build Windows installers,
You're getting a bit confused here. Python has this capability right now. So it is *already* part of the language and I don't want it taken out. Fixed up a little - yes, taken out - no. Installers aren't built into windows. Since Python has distutils, and it builds installers, why shouldn't we be using that? (apart from the fact that it is slightly broken) > ... Java, C#, C++ and > none of the other major programming languages support this *in the > language* because it isn't the right place to do this. Java is a beast. Let's not argue over that one. I've no interest in java and what it can or can't do. It has all sorts of stuff. Don't underestimate what it can do. C and C++ don't because they are too old and too low level. On the other hand, Delphi and Visual Basic and Access and most other major application development languages do also. Point is : Python does offer this now. Copied good or bad from languages such as visual basic perphaps. All of those were major languages, but perphaps not around as much right now. > If the programmer is building applications for Windows then they should > create an installer that installs into the right place. No argument > about that. Python doesn't need to, and *shouldn't* do anything to > accommodate that. Python is able to create the installers. It's just that as of right now the programs that get installed don't end up in the place where convention and Microsofts guidelines say they should go. If you've ever used a distutils-built Python Installer, you will know that it is actually quite good. What lets it down, is that it is quite difficult to get the build and collection process done in the setup.py. That is quite difficult. So it is all there, just slightly warped. It will be interesting to see if there will be any windows work done in the upcoming distutils revamp. We'll just have to wait and see. David _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
