Mark Hammond wrote:
(Note: I'm aware that people believe it to be necessary to munge the
Windows registry when installing Python packages; I just don't agree
with the practice, and don't think we should distort Python's process
to coddle it).
Whoever thinks it necessary is misguided. Installing a package doesn't
require munging the registry and none of the popular installation techniques
do. Installing Python itself does, and some packages have special
requirements (eg, pywin32 registering COM objects), but in general, Python
packages on Windows can ignore the registry.
I guess I'll step up and volunteer myself as 'misguided' then. :-)
I would very much like to be able to package up my application or
library such that it created desktop/start menu/quicklaunch icons for
various things like running the app, running examples, opening docs for
browsing, etc. I'd also like to be able to associate certain file types
with executables/scripts/shortcuts provided by the installation of my
project. After all, Windows users in general are not as technically
adapt when it comes to command line tools so setting up these nice GUI
ways of doing things adds usability significantly.
You could argue (like Phillip has) that these operations should be done
via an explicitly user-invoked script, and I can buy that for the
standard version of the tool. You could also argue that installing
applications (which is generally where these kinds of desires come into
play) is not the job of the tools we're discussing. But it seems to me
that the existing capabilities of setuptools are 80% (or more) of the
effort in creating a tool that would allow installation and efficient
maintenance of large Python-based applications, such as what my employer
delivers to customers.
All that being said, I'm fine with the idea that the standard library
version of the tool does not enable this. Just so long as nothing is
done to actively prevent extensions of that tool to do this sort of
thing for those who need or want it.
-- Dave
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