[Distutils] Header installation

[Thomas Heller]

> Agreed, I know of no other installer which offers the option to not set up
> uninstall info. On the other hand, I know of no other case of "parts" of a
> system having separate installers, so there's not much precedent. I have 17
> or so modules - which would be half as many again entries in my add/remove
> programs...
> 
> In the absence of a Python-specific "installed modules" repository (which I
> actually think would be a better approach),
This would probably be best. Paul Prescod already suggested this,
and it seems it has also been discussed on the python conference (see
AMK's post about 'tasks arising from IPC9).

>    I don't see much reason to
> change from the Windows uninstall facility. But maybe having the description
> *always* start with "Python -" (for example "Python - Numeric", "Python -
> wxPython") would at least keep them together.
They _are_ kept together, this is an excerpt of my list:

  Python 1.5 Distutils-1.0.2pre
  Python 1.5 py2exe-0.2.4
  Python 1.5.2 (final)
  Python 2.0
  Python 2.0 conbined Win32 extensions
  Python 2.0 Distutils-1.0.2pre
  Python 2.0 py2exe-0.2.4
  Python 2.1 beta 2
> 
> > >  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.
> 
> If that is guaranteed to remain the case, then yes it should be documented.
It should be documented near the download link (most windows users
are known not to read anything - they just download and run ;-)

> > > (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...)
> 
> True. Actually, what I hate with a vengeance is installers which don't tell
> you what they *do*. Do they just install files in the application directory?
> Do they add entries to the registry? Install files in the Windows directory?
> What?
The advantage of 'human readable' install log files (as in
bdist_wininst, or WISE, not in InstallShield) is that you at least
can see what they _have done_.

> 
> Can I ask that somewhere, the full details of exactly what the wininst
> installer does and does not do, be documented. What it doesn't do is at
> least as important as what it does. No hidden magic! (And yes, I know
> there's always the source. But sources can change - documentation is a
> contract, which doesn't get violated.)
Yes, I will provide this docs, but it will probably go into the 'Installing
python modules' manual.

For the user:
Should the installer display a summary of what it will do in the dialog box?
(This would not be very detailed - perhaps summarizing the selections the user
did make). Should there be an option to run it in dry-mode
(like setup install --dry-run) and display the actions?

Thomas