Installing 2.5 with 2.4?

[John Machin]

John Salerno wrote:
> Diez B. Roggisch wrote:
> > John Salerno wrote:
> >
> >> Hi all. Just curious, before I do it myself, about the best way to
> >> install 2.5 if it's the only version I want to use. Should I uninstall
> >> 2.4 first? Does 2.5 replace 2.4? I doubt the latter, but if I install
> >> 2.5, does that mean I need to reinstall all the extensions I had for 2.4
> >> again, or does 2.5 detect them somehow?
> >
> > Without an OS given, difficult answer. Generally, you can assume that there
> > is no need to ditch one version because you use another, they don't
> > interfer with each other. Only which one is perceived as "current" might
> > change and alter some behavior.
> >
> > However, you have to install all extensions again, that is for sure. And
> > most probably some of them won't work so far, as they might need some
> > modification or at least time to make them available as binary.
> >
> > Diez
>
> Thanks for the answers guys. I'm using WinXP. I noticed that when I
> installed 2.5rc2, it wasn't automatically assigned as the default
> version of Python. I wasn't sure if this was just because it was an RC,
> or maybe I have to manually make 2.5 the default. But I will uninstall
> 2.4 first anyway, so it shouldn't matter.
>

1. You need to set your path manually. A BAT file called pypath.bat
placed somewhere on your PATH and containing:
    path c:\python%1;c:\python%1\scripts;%path%
might come in handy. Warning: this is best used once each time you open
up a command window; it's cumulative (Windows is not smart enough to
remove duplicate entries) and there is a an upper limit (I believe) on
the size of the PATH.
2. Re-installing purely-Python packages is highly desirable -- don't
just copy existing files from 2.4.
3. Re-installing packages with a binary component (.pyd) on Windows is
*essential* -- they won't work on a Python version other than the one
whose libs they were linked against.

I'd suggest that you uninstall 2.4 later if at all. Ensure that you
have got all the extensions you want/need for 2.5 before you burn your
boats. As Diez says in effect, there is no guarantee that any
particular extension is available for 2.5 on Windows right now.

Cheers,
John