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I envy newbies

Paul M. pmagwene at uchicago.edu
Thu Jul 15 18:13:09 EDT 1999 
Me thinks thou has not read the books, nor the copious documentation,
nor the website, very carefully.

Once you've gotten through the install process (you can handle that,
yes?  All it takes is clicking a little icon on your screen), you can
test the INTERPRETTER (which will appear in a DOS box, but it NOT a
DOS command line) by clicking on the little icon in your Python
install directory that says "python.exe" or by doing the same thing
from your Start>Programs>Python window.

I qoute from the web page:

--------------<see
http://www.python.org/download/download_windows.html
>--------------------------
"Once you have downloaded an installer, you must run it as a program.
To do this, double click on its icon. The installer will guide you
through the installation process.

You can verify that the interpreter works by double-clicking on its
icon. A DOS style console window should pop up with a copyright notice
and a ">>>" prompt. You can now run Python statements, e.g.

>>> 12*12
144
>>> import string
>>> string.split("hello world")
['hello', 'world']
>>>
Type Control-Z or click the window's close button to exit.

Important: if the "import string" statement above doesn't work, you
are in trouble. Most likely, the registry hasn't been set up
correctly. The cause of this problem is probably that you messed with
the installation after running the installer. Try uninstalling and
reinstalling.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------


If you're flustered by anything even remotely resembling a command
window I believe (but am not sure) that the latest installer even puts
a shortcut to IDLE (a nice tk driven interpretter/programming
environment) in your Python folder on your Start>Programs>Python
window.

It might help to know at least something about the OS you're using
(e.g., to set your path to include the Python install directory so you
can access the interpretter from any command line) - even if you do
find it appalling.  However, the standard install makes it incredibly
easy, even for the clueless.

If all this is STILL too obscure, then yes, perhaps you should learn
Perl, which I hear is known for its extreme readability and ease of
use ;)

--Paul


mary jeanette wrote in message <378E3481.EE31C97 at uswest.net>...
>I decided to learn python because I heard it was a very easy language
to
>learn. So I downloaded it and bought a couple of very expensive
>paperback books from o'reilly only to discover that they are written
for
>unix. In other words, typing in the examples from the book into the
>interpretor only yields various syntax errors. I have no idea what I
am
>supposed to change in order to make the examples work, and apparently
>there is nowhere to turn in order to find out. Q: Am I supposed to
know
>DOS as a prerequisite? The idea of having to learn DOS is appalling.
>Should I try partitioning my hard drive and installing Linux or
freeBSD?
>Perhaps I should learn Perl instead, I have seen books on Perl
written
>for Win32 systems.   Thanks for your advice.
>
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