[Distutils] Header installation

[Thomas Heller]

> The wininst installer is hackable, as it is basically an exe prepended onto
> a zip file, so I can unzip the distribution wherever I like. But I wish I
> didn't need to do this. OTOH, I don't want my Windows "add/remove programs"
> applet cluttered with loads of Python modules, either (which I believe is
> also something the wininst installer does).
Only in the newest version (1.0.2pre, as in python2.1b2) the module is added
to the add/remove programs list. Of course I could include a flag into
the installer to let the user decide whether to record deinstall information,
but normally this is not decided by the poor user. IMO most Windows installers
are already asking questions where no one can provide the correct answer
(You have already installed xxx.dll in anther language and in another version.
Would you like it to be replaced?)

>  So personally, I would prefer to
> just have a zip which I could install myself...
Since the installer is an exe prepended onto a zip file (as you noted),
Winzip is happy to open and extract it as a zip file.
Maybe if this fact would be documented better, it could come
to rescue for the 'expert' user who has his own opinions about
the install location, uninstall, and so on.
> 
> Two questions - is the bdist_zip option functional (no time to try it just
> now)? And how can we persuade package authors to provide a bdist_zip version
> of their packages as well as an installer version?
Last time I checked, 'bdist --formats=zip' creates a zip-file with
pathnames relative to the root directory 'python20/package/module.py'
or even worse 'Program Files/python/package/module.py' or
'Programme/python/package/module.py' depending on where your
python is installed.
> 
> (Sorry - I HATE installers, and particularly so when I have no way of
> controlling or limiting what they do...)

This is (mostly) true for any installers I know. (OK, the install location
is normally changeable...)

Thomas