[pygtk] problem installing PyGTK on a clean WinXP system

[John Ehresman]

John Pye wrote:
> It's not found when running (for example) the PyGObject installer.
> Python itself seems to run fine. I think it could be a bug in distutils,
> or something missing in the 'setup.py' for these packages.

Is the installer doing a dependency check?  Or is is an .exe that links 
against or loads the .dll?

> You are right, although some further checking did confirm my suspicion
> that a windows equivalent for this *does* exist (I saw mention of it
> when using the Dependency Walker utility). See here for details of the
> Windows method, which uses the Registry:
> 
> http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/W-P/dll/article.php/c99

I also know of that, but don't think I've ever seen it used in practice.

> Conclusion: whereever the code is that checks for the existance of
> msvcr71.dll, it should also search in the Python installation directory,
> in addition to the PATH. Try Dependency Walker for the steps that are
> followed when Windows hunts for a DLLs.

Agreed.  The search path is also documented in MSDN, among other places.

> Question: *sometimes* msvcr71.dll is available in the Windows directory.
> What installs it? Is it reasonable to assume that any up-to-date Windows
> system will always have a copy of this DLL? If I had simply performed by
> Windows Update thing, perhaps I wouldn't have seen this problem.

Some applications do copy it into the windows directory.  I think VMWare 
tools does and some of the MS development tools do.  I would not depend 
on it being available -- my 64bit Vista install does not have it in the 
windows directory, for example.

Cheers,

John