On win98 os.path.expanuser('~') does not result in a useable directory. The MSDN recommendation for user specific directories is the use of shell.ShGetSpecialFolder, so use it. For details see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/functions/shgetspecialfolderpath.asp

# repo.py - repository base classes for mercurial
#
# Copyright 2005 Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>
#
# This software may be used and distributed according to the terms
# of the GNU General Public License, incorporated herein by reference.

class RepoError(Exception): pass