[Metakit] ongoing problem

[gary.h.merrill at gsk.com]

Although I have not had similar problems with installing Metakit for 
Python on Windows, I have to agree and sympathize with Tom Cloyd's remarks 
here.  The problem -- from the point of view of habitual Python users and 
those who understand how Python finds imported files and DLLs -- is that 
installation of Metakit is almost "too simple".  So it doesn't require any 
instructions:  you know where to put this stuff, don't you?
You know all about the DLLs directory of a Python installation and all 
about the site-packages directory.  You even know what a DLL *is* (who 
doesen't?).   So you just plop the couple of files in the "obvious" places 
and off you go.

Except that for people who are perhaps new to using Python or who have 
never used a Python package that didn't come with an installer, and who 
maybe don't even know what a DLL is (and what its relation to a ".so" file 
is), this can be bewildering.

Some additional and very explicit instructions could be very helpful. 
Things like:

1. Find your Python installation directory (and say what "installation 
driectory" means).
2. Find the DLL subdirectory of this.  Put Mk4py.dll in that directory.
3. Find the Lib/site-packages subdirectory of the installation directory. 
Put metakit.py there.
4. You're done.

Something like this could help people in Tom's position.

------------------------------
Gary H. Merrill, Principal Scientist
Analysis Applications, Research, and Technologies
GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development
Research Triangle Park, NC
919.483.8456
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