Helping Windows first time users

[boB Stepp]

On Sun, Apr 19, 2020 at 4:30 AM Barry Scott <barry at barrys-emacs.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On 18 Apr 2020, at 21:00, boB Stepp <robertvstepp at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 2:04 PM Barry Scott <barry at barrys-emacs.org> wrote:

> >> What are your thoughts on the installer changes and reply text?
> >
> > I wonder if the last screen of the installer should have a checkbox,
> > checked by default, that launches IDLE.  IDLE would then display a
> > helpful text file on this first launch describing how to use IDLE, how
> > to find and launch it again, etc.  As well have it describe all of the
> > help you are advocating here as well.  It would be a minor annoyance
> > for experienced users to have to uncheck the box before clicking
> > finish, but I think it might have a good chance of getting new users
> > off to a reliable start.  Many other Windows program installers are
> > setup similarly to launch the program being installed.  This is a
> > little different as IDLE is not Python, but that is a minor quibble, I
> > think.
>
> The problem with launching IDLE from the installer is that the user is not
> shown how do it without the installer.
>
> Launching a "Getting started" with the how to steps might work better
> on that checkbox.

IDLE can display text files as well as .py/.pyw files.  Are there
technical reasons why it would be difficult to have the first opening
of IDLE showing the contents of an informative text file as you
suggest?  One drawback is that there would be no clickable links if
this were done.

-- 
boB