[Python-Dev] Python install layout and the PATH on win32 (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Tue Mar 20 16:52:44 CET 2012

In hearing from a couple people who teach python to beginners, this is a substantial hurdle - the first thing they need to do is to edit their environment to add these directories to the PATH.

This is something I never understood. On Windows, it's custom to launch programs from the start menu, and Python is easy enough to find on the start menu (e.g. by typing "Python"). Why do people want to launch it by opening a shell window, then typing python?

In any case, I have given up my resistance to the feature request for automatic path fiddling several years ago, and was since waiting for a contribution of a patch that makes it happen.

Regards, Martin

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