Problem Python 2.6.1 vs 2.6 & pyWin32

[John Machin]

Martin v. Löwis <martin <at> v.loewis.de> writes:

> 
> > Sorry for not being explicit. With "installer" I meant the binary
> > Windows installer you create with command "python setup.py
> > bdist_wininst". In the past we've been able to use
> > "package-version.win32.exe" files created with Python 2.5 on older
> > version, but that doesn't seem to be case with 2.6.
> 
> I see. This has nothing to do with the OP's question, then.
> 
> For Python 2.6, we switched to VS 2008. Apparently, the bdist_msi
> installers now get linked with the VS 2008 CRT (msvcr90.dll), which
> must be present on the system (in WinSxS) for the installer to run;
> one way of installing the CRT is to install Python for all users,
> another is to install it "just for me", and put \python26 into PATH
> (so that the installer can find msvcr90.dll).
> 

Hi Martin,

Unfortunately this solution can't be used where the user is not permitted to
upgrade Python to 2.6 or where there appears to be an incompatible version of
msvcr90.dll in C:\windows\winsxs.

For example a user with no admin privileges on his work PC and stuck with Python
2.4.2 on Windows XP SP2 (not SP3) has the following problem when trying to run a
bdist_wininst .exe that was created for a pure-Python package using Python 2.6.1:
"""
the error message is the same as stated in this article:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/xp-wont-run.html
"""
presumably (given his locale) the German version of the error message, complete
with MS misspelling.

It would appear that the safest cover-most-bases option for a developer/packager
of pure-Python packages (especially one intended to be runnable on older
versions of Python, some as far back as 2.1) is to use Python 2.5 to make the
bdist_wininst (the exe is linked against msvcr71.dll which is widely available
and doesn't have SxS problems). Do you agree? If so, where is the best place to
propagate this advice?

Cheers,
John