Having Issues with CMD and the 'python' command

[Benjamin Kaplan]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 8:13 AM, <rdmurray at bitdance.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 at 23:01, James Mills wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 10:51 PM, Lamonte Harris <pyth0nc0d3r at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Every time I start cmd on windows it requires me to "set
>>> path=%path%;C:\python26" why? I'm getting annoyed...
>>>
>>
>> "cmd" has _nothing_ to do with Python.
>>
>>
> (Top posting corrected.)
>
> But the answer is that you need to update your PATH string at the system
> level.  You do that in Control Panel/System/Advanced/Environment variables
> (it's a button on the advanced screen, which is something that confused
> me the first time I went looking for it).
>
> ObPython: you know, it occurs to me that Windows follows exactly the
> opposite philosophy from Python when it comes to hierarchy.  Python's
> Zen is "shallow is better than deep", whereas Windows' philosophy
> is "deep is better than shallow".  Every release of Windows seems
> to bury the things one needs to do to administer the system deeper
> and deeper inside a nested set of windows...and every time I touch
> Windows I am reminded how sensible the Python Zen is :)
>

It's not a question of sensibility. It's a question of purpose. The Zen is
the philosophy of a language that tries to be easy to learn and easy to use.
Python is used by programmers who want to experiment with it, but who
usually know enough not to os.system("rm -r /") or anything similar.
Windows, on the other hand, wants to hide everything that can potentially
ruin the system as deep as possible so that many of the idiots who use that
system don't do stupid things like delete the registry, wipe the environment
settings, turn off the "Nag Screen" (UAC), and other things of that nature.



> --RDM
>
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
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