In distutils/util.py, in the function convert_path, I find I 
have to add the following two lines:

def convert_path (pathname):
    ...
    if os.sep == '/':
        return pathname
>>    if pathname=='':
>>        return pathname

This is required when installing piddle-1.0.15 on a Win32 
platform.  It is required under Python 2.1.2 as well as 
2.2.1.

I don't know if it is something specific to piddle, Win32, 
or something else.