Using Tkinter in windows 98

[Tim Peters]

[Dennis Wilson]
> My machine is an ibm aptive with windows 98 installed. I have a
> beautifully running tcl and perl with tk. I have tried to install
> and get to work python with tkinter. What an adventure.
>
> This final error message has me stymied.
> in python
> >>> import _tkinter;
> ImportError: DLL Load: a device attached to the system is not functioning.
>
> Like which device. The system is working fine. Python is not functioning.
>
> Just an aside, these kinds of vacuous error messages are part of
> what gives software a bad name.

That's a Windows msg.  From Microsoft's winerror.h:

// MessageId: ERROR_GEN_FAILURE
//
// MessageText:
//
//  A device attached to the system is not functioning.
//

#define ERROR_GEN_FAILURE                31L

Python tried to load a dll, Windows refused, Windows gave Python
ERROR_GEN_FAILURE as its reason for refusing, and Python passed the msg on
to you.  That's the only clue Windows gave it!  So it's the only clue Python
can give you.

Haven't heard of this happening before, and don't have a guess as to the
real problem.  It's odd right from the start that you called this "an
adventure", though, because most people running Windows appear to have no,
or very little, trouble installing Python+Tcl/Tk.

A decent guess is that your previous installation of Tcl/Tk is incompatible
with the version Python is trying to use, and Tk is tying itself into knots
as a result.  Many mysterious problems go away by magic after people
ruthlessly track down and eliminate all but one copy of the Tcl and Tk dlls
from their entire disk.  See the Python FAQ for more.

python-so-rarely-gets-blamed-for-a-python-problem<0.9-wink>-ly y'rs  - tim