Python program distribution - a source of constant friction

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Nicholas Cole <nicholas.cole at gmail.com> wrote:
> But what about the end-user?  The end-user who just wants a blob (he doesn't
> care about what language it is in - he just wants to solve the problem at
> hand with your shiny, cool, problem-solving application).

This is where OS-provided package managers really shine. It should be
possible to type:

$ sudo apt-get install shiny-cool-problem-solver

and have it go and fetch Python, the magical library you need
(matching to the binary architecture of the target platform), and your
code, plop them all into the right places in the file system, and give
you a new command "shinycool" that just happens to shebang into
Python. Well and good. Trouble is... Windows isn't up there. And
trying to maintain packages for lots of different platforms is a lot
of work.

ChrisA