Windows distribution suggestions?

[Timothy Smith]

Paul Rubin wrote:

>As what must be penance for something or other, I'm needing to release
>a Python app for use under Windows XP.  Please be gentle with me since
>I'm a Un*x weenie and the only thing I've had much practice with under
>Windows is rebooting it.
>
>My app contains three different programs (say alice.py, bob.py, and
>carol.py) that need to be independently launchable, and a dozen or so
>other .py files that get imported into those first three.  What I'd
>really really like is to make a single installer called (say)
>"app.exe".  Launching app.exe should completely install Python, unpack
>all the necessary modules, and make three icons (alice, bob, carol) on
>the desktop.
>
>I know there's various ways of building Windows distros like that, but
>am not sure what's currently preferred.  Gordon McMillan's site
>www.mcmillan-inc.com has had its domain expire (he really should renew
>it before some squatter grabs it!) and the mirror that I've found
>indicates that it was last updated for Python 2.3.  I wrote my app
>under 2.4 and while I don't think I depend heavily on any 2.4
>features, I'd rather not have to downgrade just to make this exe
>installer.  There's also py2exe--is that as good?  
>
>Also, what's the preferred way of releasing updates?  That is, let's
>say I want to update my .py files and release a new version fairly
>frequently--should I just make a new .exe every time?  Would launching
>the new one cleanly overwrite or uninstall the old one?  Total
>coolness would be a way to ship an "update.py" along with the app,
>that syncs the app up to a Subversion repository, but that may be
>asking a bit much.
>
>I do have Visual C++ installed on the development machine, if that helps
>  
>

i have just gone through this process myself. if your sure your only 
distributing the app to windows xp system, then it's perfectly possible 
to update from an svn by using pysvn. pysvn doesn't currently work on 
win9x clients.
py2exe - use it, it's damn good. it puts all your library's in a 
library.zip file which can then use to update your app.
make a nice neat installer using NSIS, you can even use it to send 
manual patches if you need to.
if you need any help making the pysvn or other parts work give me an 
email i can help.