problems using COM with Visual C

[Mark Hammond]

This exact same question was asked about 2 weeks ago - check Deja
News, as you will find a helpful response from Roger Burnham.

Mark.

"Jim Kerr" <jim_kerr at agilent.com> wrote in message
news:8ara42$pks$1 at nirvana.sr.hp.com...
>   I'm trying to use Python's COM facilities to control a build in
Visual
> C++.
> I've run into some problems that don't make sense to me at all (not
> surprising,
> since I don't know COM).
>
>   Here's the script I have so far:
>
>      # Open and manipulate a Visual C++ project
>
>      from win32com.client import Dispatch
>      vc=Dispatch("MSDEV.Application")
>      vc.Visible=1
>      vc.Documents.Open(r"C:\src\Workspace.dsw")
>      projlist = vc.Projects
>      ap = vc.ActiveProject()
>
>   So far, so good; ap has the value 'MainApp', as it should. But if
I
> try to set the active project (from PythonWin)
>
>     >>> vc.ActiveProject = 'Persist'
>
> ... it doesn't fly:
>
> Traceback (innermost last):
>   File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
>   File "C:\Program Files\Python\win32com\client\dynamic.py", line
413, in
> __setattr__
>     self._oleobj_.Invoke(self._olerepr_.propMap[attr].dispid, 0,
> pythoncom.DISPATCH_PROPERTYPUT, 0, value)
> com_error: (-2147352567, 'Exception occurred.', (61837, 'Microsoft
Visual
> C++', 'Unable to write read-only property.',
> 'C:\\PROGRA~1\\MICROS~3\\COMMON\\MSDEV98\\BIN\\MSDEV.HLP', 455053,
0), None)
>
>   The MSDEV documentation sure implies that ActiveProject is
writable, so
> this
> error seems kind of confusing.
>
>   So anyway, I'm doing something wrong... I can accept that. But
here's the
> odd thing:
> from this point on, no matter what I type at the PythonWin prompt, a
dialog
> appears
> that says:
>
>   'The topic does not exist. Contact your application vendor for an
updated
>    Help file (129)'
>
>   The only cure that I've found for this is to quit and restart
PythonWin.
>
>   Has anyone out there slayed these dragons before?
>
>   FWIW, here are some OS and Python specifics:
>     NT 4.0, Service Pack 5
>     PythonWin build 125
>
>   Thanks for the help!
>
> -Jim
>
>
>