[Python-ideas] Adding python to Windows. Was :Re: Make py.exe default to Python 3

[Nick Coghlan]

On 17 March 2016 at 08:13, Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j.benjamin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 16 Mar 2016 18:44, "Steve Dower" <steve.dower at python.org> wrote:
>> As a result, if Python did ship in Windows, I'd be trying really hard to
>> make it an internal implementation detail to discourage people from ever
>> relying on it. As Nick Coghlan said when I last chatted with him about this,
>> "please, please, learn from our mistakes" :)
>
> I can understand that. The OSX system Python is like that. You're not
> supposed to mess with it and when you want to do some programming every
> guide suggests to install a newer non-system Python. I often see reports of
> people getting into trouble after removing the system Python because they
> wanted a newer version for some reason.

"This is for operating system use, do not touch unless you're
developing an operating system component" is the direction we're
wanting to take the system Python installation on Fedora by moving it
out to a dedicated "system-python" executable:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/System_Python

Once we can get the OS itself to a point of not caring what gets run
when you invoke "/usr/bin/python" or "/usr/bin/python3", then we gain
a lot more flexibility in how we handle the default symlinks (e.g.
replacing them with something like Geoffrey Thomas's
Python-launcher-for-POSIX-systems [1], or just letting machine admins
configure them via existing alternatives management systems)

Cheers,
Nick.

[1] https://ldpreload.com/blog/usr-bin-python-23

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia