Minimal Python Installation

Question

Various software installations on my laptop each require their own particular version of Python. ViewVC requires Python 2.5 and Blender requires Python 2.6. Mercurial (thankfully) comes with its Python interpreter packaged in a DLL in the Mercurial installation itself.

How do I get by without having to install the entire Python environment each time? Is there some minimal installer which will install the bare minimum without affecting other programs? Can I modify the Blender and ViewVC installations so that they too use their own Python-in-a-DLL?

Answer 1

You should be able to get away with installing the Python binaries in the same tree as the specific application I believe (Totally untested hunch though).

Answer 2

It's hard to know which "bare minimum" the Blender scripts you'll want to use in the future may be counting on (short of the full Python standard library, which isn't all that large in term of disk space after all). Why not install both Python 2.5 and 2.6? They can coexist nicely (if your scriptable apps use hashbangs like #!/usr/bin/env python instead of specifically mentioning python2.5 or python2.6, you may need to trick out their PATHs just a little bit).