On Wed, Apr 09, 2008 at 02:26:31PM -0400, Stanley A. Klein wrote: > I don't know what Windows add/remove > programs function does, but all it might do is to run the executable to > install packages and record the installation (as was previously done by > third party programs) to facilitate clean removal. Unless you can perform > more of the other functions I listed above, I doubt I would call > add/remove a package manager.
Ugh, you have yet to discover the horrors/wonders of MSI (I wish I was as naive as you here!). A properly installed windows program will install using an MSI database, registering each file, registry setting etc. Often a setup.exe will still interface with the MSI database in the background (they should, there's a C API for it too). MSI will even do stuff like reference counting how many programs need a certain file (in case you have something installed in a shared directory), figure out what to do on conflict etc. They have many anc complicated rules, options and features. As far as I am concerned MSI (and thus Add/Remove Programs) can be treated as a package manager in windows. Regards Floris -- Debian GNU/Linux -- The Power of Freedom www.debian.org | www.gnu.org | www.kernel.org _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig