[Python-Dev] New Windows installer for Python 3.5

[Paul Moore]

On 5 January 2015 at 08:40, Donald Stufft <donald at stufft.io> wrote:
>> The biggest problem here is that py.exe doesn't help in the slightest
>> with script wrappers like pip.exe, virtualenv.exe, py.test.exe,
>> ipython.exe ... I've actually drifted away from using py.exe because
>> of this. Having just the interpreter special cased isn't really good
>> enough. (I know there's py -m pip, but it's not easy to get people to
>> use this...)
>
> Won’t script wrappers use whatever version they were installs against? Or do
> you mean the “installed” version might be 3.5 for ``pip.exe`` even though
> there’s a 3.5.1 for ``pip.exe`` on the PATH?

What I mean is that if you have Python 3.4 and Python 3.5 installed,
and pip.exe is in the Scripts directory of each, then which pip.exe
you get (and hence which Python you install into) if you just type
"pip install xxx" depends on your PATH. Steve is in essence saying
that it's not possible to sanely manage PATH as part of the new
installer, but that py.exe makes that unnecessary. My point is that
while py handles the interpreter, it doesn't handle things like pip
(unless we change the standard usage instructions to say "py -m pip"
is the supported approach on Windows).

Paul