how to clean sys.path

[siggi]

"Tim Roberts"  wrote:
>>
>>when I do >>>sys.path in IDLE (winXP), i get a horrendously long list of
>>paths, paths I may have used during a lot of trials and errors. How can I
>>clean up sys.path? I mean, trim it of unnecessary paths?
>
> What do mean by "used during a lot of trials and errors"?  sys.path is
> recreated from scratch every time Python starts.  It doesn't accumulate
> over time, other than from new packages that you install.
> -- 
> Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
> Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.


Sorry Tim, my statement was not correct, due to my inexperience with Python.
And sorry, too, for my somewhat lengthy reply:
After having had inspected my current sys.path...

['C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\My Python files',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\Lib\\idlelib',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\python25.zip',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\DLLs',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\lib',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\lib\\plat-win',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\lib\\lib-tk',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25', 'C:\\Documents
and Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My
Documents\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\PIL', 'C:\\Documents and
Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\win32',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My
Documents\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\win32\\lib', 'C:\\Documents and
Settings\\User\\My Documents\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\Pythonwin',
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\My
Documents\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\wx-2.8-msw-ansi']

or in plain DOS:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Python files
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\Lib\idlelib
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\python25.zip
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\DLLs
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\lib
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\lib\plat-win
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\lib\lib-tk
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\lib\site-packages
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\lib\site-packages\PIL
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Python25\lib\site-packages\win32
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My
Documents\Python25\lib\site-packages\win32\lib
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My
Documents\Python25\lib\site-packages\Pythonwin
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My
Documents\Python25\lib\site-packages\wx-2.8-msw-ansi

...it just looked horrible to me at first sight!

If I interpret your explanation correctly, all these paths are necessary,
and not relics of previous installations and deinstallations.

What puzzles me, though, is, that e.g., when I run the wxPython application
"AnalogClock.py" with IDLE or in the command line , this works only in the
directory "...\My Python files\wxDemos\" . This directory contains all files
and folders from the original "\wx-2.8-msw-ansi\demos\").

When I copy AnalogClock.py to ...\My Python Files\  , nothing happens after
running it with IDLE or in the command line.
Appending 'C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Python
files\wxDemos ' to the sys.path does not help either.

Thinking that I am clever, I  changed my sys.path with sclicing and
concatenation such that my sys.path starts with

'C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Python files', 'C:\Documents
and Settings\User\My Documents\My Python files\wxDemos'. Now \wxDemos\ is
being searched very early.

... no way! After running AnalogClock.py again, this error message appears:

------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Python
files\wxAnalogClock.py", line 14, in <module>
    import wx
ImportError: No module named wx.
------------------------------------------

Very strange! Because all this wx stuff IS IN the directory 'C:\Documents
and Settings\User\My Documents\My Python files\wxDemos'. And AnalogClock.py
does work when residing in that directory.

Can you help me again?

Thanks,

siggi

P.S. On another PC where the python program is in c:\programs\python25\, 
same as above!