[Tutor] need help opening a file in idle

[Meital Amitai]

Hi everyone,

I am not sure how to open a file in my computer in idle.

For my python class the homework states to write a function that accepts the
name of a file and returns a tuple containing the number of lines, words and
characters in the file. My problem is how do I get idle to first accept the
name of a file. I created a file in text edit program saved with a .doc
extension, saved on my desktop. However the only way I have learned to open
a file in my class is to write something like:

f = open('inputfile','r')
line = f.readline()

but when i type exactly that into my idle i get the following error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#12>", line 1, in <module>
    f = open('inputfile','r')
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'inputfile'

and when i ask it to open the actual file i created in my text edit program:
file1.doc
f = open('file1.doc','r')
I get the same message.

I am not sure how to tell it to go to desktop folder in my computer where i
saved that file. Am I missing something, and completely not getting the
point?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks so much!
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