Why Don't Scripts Run ?

[Jeff Shannon]

jrc wrote:

> The confusion is that this small point is completely
> overlooked in the documentation, including Fehily's
> book. A newcomer gets the impression that one starts
> the interpreter, THEN types 'python script.py', which
> leads to the errors I initially experienced.

While I can't speak for that particular book, and don't care to search the
Python docs at this time, I'm pretty sure that a distinction is made between
directing you to type at a command prompt (or maybe shell prompt), and
directing you to type in the interpreter.  It is quite likely, though, that
the difference between these is not made explicitly clear.  I would have
imagined that someone capable of installing python would understand that
"command prompt" (or equivalent phrase, e.g. "DOS prompt", "DOS box",
"console") means, in fact, to use the operating system's shell (DOS, bash,
cmd.exe, et. al.).  This *has* come up several times before, however.
Obviously, we can't do anything about the book, but perhaps the Python
tutorial should be reworded to make this distinction clear?  (If it's not
already -- the confusion may well result *only* from a book's wording, and
someone learning from a book is rather less likely to bother going through
the tutorial...)

Jeff Shannon
Technician/Programmer
Credit International