Python 2.4 on Windows XP

[Scott David Daniels]

Jeff Shannon wrote:
> DavidHolt wrote:
>> I have a problem that I see on two different machines, one running XP
>> SP1 and one XP SP 2.... On both I installed Python 2.4.
>> I can't seem to start IDLE. When I try to start it, I get an hourglass
>> cursor for a short time then nothing more happens. This happens whether
>> I click the IDLE shortcut or click the pythonw.exe directly, or attempt
>> to launch pythonw from a command line.
> 
> Maybe I'm misinterpreting you, here, but pythonw.exe is *not* IDLE. It 
> is, instead, a console-less version of the Python interpreter, which can 
> run the Python scripts for IDLE (among other things).
> 
> My version of Python is older, but in %pythondir%/Tools/idle, there is 
> an idle.pyw file.  Try running that.
On 2.4, the directory is:

     %pythondir%/Lib/idlelib

Remember that for Windows, \ is the separator.  SO, change an idle
shortcut to, for example:

     C:\Python24\Python.exe  C:\Python24\Lib\idlelib\idle.pyw

I suspect your real problem is the internal firewall in XP,
in which case you'll need to allow building sockets to LOCALHOST
(127.0.0.1) on port 8833, or, alternatively, start idle with the
"-n" flag.

--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org