Comment 27 for bug 187290

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Ulferikson <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> > the patch to (179683) Works For Me(tm) on Vista.
> > Haven't had the opportunity to try on XP.
>
> Do you really need the patch? It is too easy to oversee an AppPath or
> PATH pointing to a working python install. Make sure you cannot use
> extensions without the patch and then try again with.
>
>
Background info:
PATH: c:\mingw\bin;c:\devlibs\bin;C:\Program Files\MiKTeX
2.6\miktex\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;c:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\binn\;C:\Program
Files\Subversion\bin;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\PROGRA~1\ATT\Graphviz\bin;C:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\90\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\90\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\;C:\Program
Files\Sandcastle\ProductionTools\;C:\Program Files 2\jEdit;C:\Program
Files\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd

C:\Dev\Cpp\InkscapeSvn>reg query
"hklm\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\App Paths\inkscape.exe"
ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

C:\Dev\Cpp\InkscapeSvn>reg query
"hkcu\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\App Paths\inkscape.exe"
ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

Yes, I need that patch (or actually, preferably something that also works on
xp). Without it the following happens:
 - python is still found (the correct one in /python sub dir next to
inkscape executable )
- For example the perspective effect fails followingly due to registrytool
cruft output on stdout

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "C:\Dev\Cpp\InkscapeSvn\inkscape\share\extensions\perspective.py",
line 129, in <module>
    e.affect()
  File "C:\Dev\Cpp\InkscapeSvn\inkscape\share\extensions\inkex.py", line
154, in affect
    self.effect()
  File "C:\Dev\Cpp\InkscapeSvn\inkscape\share\extensions\perspective.py",
line 72, in effect
    q[query] = float(f.read())
ValueError: invalid literal for float(): RegistryTool: Could not create the
registry key 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\inkscape.exe'

363.34074

> > If App Paths indeed need to be in HKLM on xp, then my
> > patch is broken. I tried googling, but the information
> > about App Paths was really thin,
>
> I would use microsoft as reference on windows questions:
> http://www.google.com/search?q=site:microsoft.com+app+paths
>
> http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997545.aspx
> "The system supports "per application" paths. If you register a path,
> Windows sets the PATH environment variable to be the registered path when it
> starts your application. You set your application's path in the AppPaths
> subkey under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key."
>

ok, your googling skills were obviously better than mine then.

>
> > However, why do we even set PATH at runtime? Shouldn't
> > that be handled by the installer and if so, then there
> > are no permission issues?
>
> Using an installer is probably the normal "recommended" way, but you
> still cannot set HKLM as regular user and if you build Inkscape from
> source you wouldn't use an installer at all.
>

If you can install for all users, then the installer is able to write to
HKLM.
There's still the case when the user isn't an admin (not member of
Administrator group) for which the installer route does not work.
While it is nice that it works also for devs building from source, Joe User
does not do that.