[Python-Dev] PEP 370, open questions

[Christian Heimes]

Tim Golden wrote:
> If it had its priorities switched around, Christian's patch could simply
> call os.path.expanduser.

No, I can't use expanduser("~") because there is no sensible way to get
from the path to APPDATA. In it's infinite wisdom MS has decided to
localize the name of its shell folders. On my German WinXP box the
APPDATA folder is called "Anwendungsdaten".

> I'll hold off now. The situation's clear enough and I'm not really
> offering anything here. There hard part's going to be making a
> decision. I think my proposal amounts to:
> 
> 1) Switch the priority of env var checks in os.path.expanduser
> so that HOMEDRIVE/PATH comes before USERPROFILE.
> 2) Have the new code use os.path.expanduser under Windows
> 3) Document the fact that installing in a per-user way might
> be writing considerable amounts to a network-based profile.

3) is sensible but I'd prefer 4):

4) Default to the %APPDATA% env var but give the user a chance to
overwrite the policy with the env var PYTHONUSERBASE, or whatever is a
good name for it. Did I mention that I'm not good in naming things? *g*

Christian