[Tutor] Trouble installing Python on Win7 (not a valid Win 32 app)

[Wayne Watson]

...

With fingers crossed ...
>
> I'm going to try one last time before I give up:
>
> - Go to Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Associations.  DONE
> - Highlight the line for ".py"  DONE
> - Click "Change program..." DONE
> - In the "Open with" dialog, click the "Browse..." button.  DONE
> - In the "Open with..." dialog, navigate to C:\Python25\Lib\idlelib  DONE
> - Highlight "idle.bat" DONE
> - Click the "Open" button. DONE
> - You'll be back in the "Open with" dialog.  DONE. Click OK. DONE
>
> If you - yet again - do something other than what I've just described, 
> and then reply telling me that it didn't work, I will add you to my 
> spam filter.
Sigh.
The .py entry shows idle.bat
OK, take a deep breath.  With a right-click on a py file "Open with", 
idle.bat shows as the first entry, then idle.pyw, Notepad, and finally 
python.exe.  If I select either idle.bat or idle.pyw,  I get a cmd 
window that show in the title: c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe and another 
"normal" window that says, "Windows cannot find idle.pyw. Make sure you 
typed the name correctly, then try again." Selecting idle.pyw, gives me 
a window that tells me the app I've tried to open in IDLE is not a valid 
Win32 app.

I have no idea if the Dave Angel intervention had anything to do with this.

I think we've exhausted ourselves.  Time to ditch 2.5.2 and find a 
better version of Python to work on.


>
> You asked about the %1 %2 %3 etc. in idle.bat.  Yes, those are 
> arguments.  From now on, when you double-click on a .py file,
> - Windows will run idle.bat and pass it the name of your .py file as 
> its first (and only) argument.
> - Idle.bat will then run pythonw.exe with "idle.pyw" as its first 
> argument, and the name of your .py file as its second argument.
> - Python will then run IDLE with your .py file as its first argument.
>
> I'm going to underscore this one more time, because you need to 
> understand it: Python is an interpreted/scripting language,
Clearly that is so.
> and (except for specialty extensions like Pyrex) it does NOT compile 
> into standalone executables.*
Again that is so.
>   Windows cannot run Python code directly - Windows doesn't know what 
> Python is.  When you double-click on a Python file and expect Windows 
> to do something with it, you have to tell Windows to open it with a 
> program that Windows actually
Of course.
> CAN run directly - in this case, idle.bat.  What you've been telling 
> Windows to do, by associating .py files with idle.pyw, is to open one 
> file it doesn't recognize by using another file it doesn't recognize.  
> Don't do that.
I started this very simply. I just installed 2.5.2, as we know both 
know, and made no changes to any associations.  The install made them, 
not me. They only came up in this thread earlier.  I may have made a 
mistake in doing so, but I have no idea where. Users should not have to 
go through the association process unless asked to do so.  There was 
never a message to ask that. I've  seen it on programs like Winamp, 
WinMediaPlayer, RealPlayer, but not here.
>
>
> * Installation bundlers like Py2EXE or GUI2EXE simply create a minimal 
> bundle of the Python interpreter and put it in (essentially) a 
> self-extracting Zip file.  Yes, the result is an executable - usually 
> a gigantic one - but it's not "compiling" in the usually-understood 
> meaning of the word.

-- 
            Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)

              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
               Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

              "My suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer
               than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." --
               Physiologist and Geneticist J.B.S. Haldane 1860-1936

                     (Maybe not, Dr. Haldane. We have an
                      amazing imagination)

                     Web Page:<www.speckledwithstars.net/>