How to install ttx?

[ygoe]

I somehow installed ttx.exe on Windows for Python 3.9 a year ago. Now I wanted to revisit my old project but can't figure out how to get the tools together. I found this repository that should provide the ttx command, and installed it again with pip install fonttools. That succeeded, but there is no ttx command available. I have found a file ttx.exe in my directory C:\Program Files\Python39\Scripts, but there is none in the current one C:\Program Files\Python311\Scripts which would also be in %PATH%.

So what do I have to do to get the ttx command on Windows? The documentation doesn't seem to cover this. Is it another Python package? Or a separate pip syntax? I can't get this working.

[jenskutilek]

Did you use the pip version matching your desired Python version (pip3.11.exe)?

Python 3.11 is usually installed in a subdirectory of your user directory, AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python311, and ttx.exe should be in a subfolder Scripts there, which also needs to be in your PATH.

[ygoe]

Yes, it also suggested me to upgrade pip which I did afterwards. Python is installed in C:\Program Files for me.

I added that user profile directory to my user %PATH% variable but it wouldn't find the fonttools package (ModuleNotFoundError). Very strange.

After some more searching, I tried running pip from a command prompt with admin privileges. I first had to uninstall the package and then install it again. This time it landed in the Program Files directory and that works now. (I also had to upgrade pip again in that environment.) Maybe this needs to be installed as admin to make it work? I'm not very familiar with Python modules and how they're located.

[kenmcd]

When Microsoft pushed the MS Store version of Python it messed-up existing installations.
They silently added a couple application aliases which redirect your python commands to their version.
So remove/disable those aliases.
Go to
Settings > Apps > Advanced app settings > App execution aliases
and toggle off the switches for both python.exe and python3.exe.
Then, if you have the proper path setting, your python commands will start working correctly again.

[ygoe]

Thank you for your reply.

Recently, things suddenly stopped working again. I'm not aware I'd have changed anything. So I revisited the whole Python setup topic. This time, it's the reverse. When Python pushed the install manager version of Python it messed up a lot of things. Now everything is in a different place again. And not in PATH of course. I had a long nice but unfruitful conversation with a well-known chatbot (that seemed to have shared my doubts about the new install manager) and ended up hardcoding the path to where the ttx alias is created and call that file directly in my application. Gone are all PATH issues that have existed before. It's not portable because the app now contains a path to deep within my user profile. But hey, it works. I should be happy about that. 3 hours unexpectedly gone for nothing.

Signed, not the biggest fan of Python, considering the trouble it causes.

PS: I understand that Python's drawbacks are not your fault. I just wish the ttx and pyftsubset tools were available without all the hassle. Something along the lines of .NET Native AOT single file publishing. One .exe file, no dependencies.