Distutils have a script functionality that copy the 
corresponding file
into a common script folder (that could be on the 
path) and sligthly
modify the first line of the script to reflect the path 
of the python
executable.

It is very nice because it make new commands 
directly available but 
for the window platform I think it could be 
improved.

First the extention of the script could be .bat such 
that they will be
accessible as commands as soon as the script 
folder is in the path.

Second the first line adaptation could be slightly 
different and take
advantage of the -x option of the python executable

#!python foo bar

could become:

@C:\Python24\python.exe -x "%~f0" foo bar  & exit /
b

instead of:

#!C:\Python24\python.exe -x "%~f0"  foo bar & exit /
b

In attachement I add my modified version of the 
build_scripts.py file (Revision 1.25, the head of the 
30th of March)

Logged In: YES 
user_id=511447

 Here is a small summary of the remark made arround 
the she-bang modification of the windows platform.

1. Trent let us know that the she-bang modification 
works only for the win nt sons and that in general it is 
better to use the .bat extension instead of the .cmd one

2. I realize that we shouldn't change the extension of a 
script if it exist since the extention could be usefull to 
determine which version of python to run
 - pythonw for the .pyw extention
 - python for the .py extention

According to these remarks and in the purpose to be 
as conservative as possible I make this another 
proposition:

The change in the she bang will happend only if
 - the win32 platform is detected (os.name == "nt")
 - the platform is win NT son (os.environ["OS"] == 
"Windows_NT")
 - the original script had no extension (os.path.
splitext(outfile)[1] == "")

Furthermore I add the %* in the new nt she-bang to let 
the underlying script know about command line 
argument.

such that the unix she-bang:

    #!python foo bar

will become:

    @C:\Python24\Python.exe -x "%%~f0" foo bar %* & 
exit /b

I think that in these conditions the change could only 
improve the existing situation at least it improve for 
some them (Zope, Chetaah, PyCrust, IPython)

Tell me what you think about the proposed change.

Vivian.

The idea with "-x" option and renaming .py to .bat is nice, but if I
want to execute the script with another version of Python or manually
without -x option I may become confused.

Would it be better to provide separated .bat files to launch scripts?
See #4015