[Twisted-Python] First impressions of Windows downlod

[Glyph Lefkowitz]

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002 11:08:04 +0100, "Andy Robinson" <andy at reportlab.com> wrote:
> > Check out the stuff in the bin/ directory.

> I would have done if it was included in the Windows distro :-) If you include
> it as is, it still will not work on Windows. If you make them end in .py,
> then someone who ran the default Windows Python installation would just be
> able to execute them, but without an extension they will need to type
> 'python' in front.

I don't understand Microsoft's "DOS Shell" scripting language too well, but I
think "execute" means something misleading in this context,
i.e. "double-click".  Since most of the Twisted main scripts don't have a GUI,
when you "run" them in the explorer, a black DOS box comes up and disappears.

Is there some way to make it so that these commands are accessible via the
user's %PATH% at a DOS prompt, regardless of distutils?  The only technique
I've found involves Cygwin and that was pretty nasty.

> I don't know enough about distutils to know if this can be fixed
> post-install, but I expect to be learning over the next 2 months; we haven't
> even made a distutils setup.py for our package yet.  And we will have exactly
> the same issues.

The real problem is that these tools don't have a GUI and that doesn't mesh
very well with the Windows way of being.  A simple GUI for running/making
TA[SPX] files with Tkinter has been on the "that would be nice" TODO list for
some time, but so few Twisted developers use Windows on a regular basis that it
never seems to get done...

FWIW I don't think it's possible to do run any post-installation code on win32
with distutils.  I haven't looked in depth for a while, but I haven't heard
news of this being fixed, either.

> BTW I fully support separating the "kick off" script from the functionality.
> We're working a lot on things like McMillan installers, so an app or distro
> can be shipped as one .pyz file which works on all platforms.  Sysadmins in
> big companies like one-file apps a lot!  This means putting
> scripts/docs/examples outside the code archive, exactly as you have done.

Yes.  I'm glad you see the utility in doing this.  I also strongly agree with
you that the Twisted experience needs to be positive within the first fifteen
minutes of the download, and it bothers me that the Windows installer is not in
very good shape.  (Have you tried the debian install though?  It's smooooth
^_^)

> > Until Twisted fixes its windows installer, please try (and recommend to
> > your co-workers to try) the source distribtion (yes, I realize that
> > installing-twisted.html says otherwise)

> Actually I will try to keep them slaving away on other stuff; testers for
> installation routines are only useful once, or maybe twice if they have
> really short memories :-)

Well, if your testers are sysadmins they tend to be irritated by the
installation problems a lot more often.  Trouble is that sysadmins rarely
install server frameworks on their own...

-- 
 |    <`'>    |  Glyph Lefkowitz: Travelling Sorcerer  |
 |   < _/ >   |  Lead Developer,  the Twisted project  |
 |  < ___/ >  |      http://www.twistedmatrix.com      |
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