Unable to extract Python source code using Windows

[John Machin]

Elric02 wrote:
"""
I'm currently trying to get access to the Python source code, however
whenever I try to extract the files using the latest version of WinZip
(version 10) I get the following error "error reading however after
processing 0 entries
"""

I've managed to reproduce this behaviour:
1. Browser = Firefox
2. go to www.python.org
3. click on quick links / source code [on the left side of the home
page]
4. Firefox pops up a box which says 'You have chosen to download
blahblah.tar.bz2 which is a: WinZip File". [It is is gravely mistaken].

5. The default presented is "open" (as opposed to save to disk).
6. If you click on OK, you get "Error reading header [not 'however'!!]
after 0 entries."

In defense/mitigation of FireFox: IE is equally mistaken at step 4. At
step 6, it doesn't complain but starts off downloading [painfully
slowly]. I didn't wait around to find out what sort of error message
ensued.

So:
(1) like I said in an earlier post, go for the .tgz file -- look for
the line gzip-compressed source code: python-2.4.3.tgz
on the home page
(2) download the file, don't open archives online, even from trusted
sources like python.org
(3) understand that WinZip *does* handle .tar, .gz, .tar.gz, and .tgz
files. It doesn't handle .bz2 files.
(4) When asking a question, try stating what you have been doing, with
some precision -- like in this case, *WHICH* archive and *HOW* ...