Why does Python never add itself to the Windows path?

[Eric Pederson]

Ben Sizer wrote:

>I've installed several different versions of Python across several
>different versions of MS Windows, and not a single time was the Python
>directory or the Scripts subdirectory added to the PATH environment
>variable. Every time, I've had to go through and add this by hand, to
>have something resembling a usable Python installation. No such
>problems on Linux, whether it be Mandrake/Mandriva, Fedora Core, or
>Kubuntu. So why is the Windows install half-crippled by default? I just
>rediscovered this today when trying to run one of the Turbogears
>scripts, but this has puzzled me for years now.
>

+1

It is a pain for me because it is something I need to remember to do 
maybe once a year or less.

It seems best practice with Windows is to throw away the machine every 2 
years - so much crap gets automatically installed in places and ways not 
solicited I'd think only cybermonks get away clean.  That the Python 
install is a good citizen in this regard is noble, but does it really 
make a difference in regard to the overall Windows installation?  And is 
that difference worth the recurring pain of not having Python on the 
path automatically?

There must be hundreds of programs on the PATH of the machine I type on, 
its ugly.  And lets not even talk about the Registry.  Time to throw 
away the machine. That's what I get for being a cheap slut for any 
interesting program.


Windows will never be UNIX, invest in penicillin.