again re 1.6b1 on Windows

[Tim Peters]

[Tom]
> I built the 1.6b1 sources for windows to, with the same results.  No
> point in everyone who wants to try b1 on windows going through the
> same thing (particularly as VC isn't free), so I put the results on
> the web with a brief explanation.
>
> http://www.malcolmson.com/python/
> ...

Thanks, Tom.  I *believe* Guido will be uploading "a normal" Windows binary
installer for 1.6b1 "soon", to python.org.  Then people won't need to do any
of this by hand.

Note too that the documentation of the Windows build process was extensively
updated after the snapshot from which 1.6 was built.  This will be in the
2.0 release, but not backstitched into 1.6; if you want to see it now, it's
in the CVS development tree (on SourceForge).

> ...
> And the registry stuff is optional I believe.

Frankly, I no longer remember what's required under 1.6, as lots of this is
changing (to be simpler and more predictable) in 2.0.  You certainly don't
need the registry to run Python from a DOS box; but life can get hairier if
you're, e.g., slinging COM servers that refer to Python indirectly via some
embedded component.