[Tutor] Python shell wont open IDLE or an exisiting .py files

[eryksun]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 11:16 PM, Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> writes:
>
>> This I do not. What is 'Python GUI'? What is 'Python Shell'?
>
> Those are (part of) the names of menu entries created by the Python
> installer for MS Windows. I am not sure exactly what programs they
> invoke.

The above reply was cross-posted from the following thread on python-list:

https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2014-January/thread.html#665549

The Windows start menu has a shortcut for "IDLE (Python GUI)" that
runs the idle.pyw script. The file extension .pyw is associated with
either pythonw.exe or the launcher pyw.exe, which are both linked as
GUI programs. That means the process is created without an attached
console (one can be allocated or attached later using Windows API
calls).

idle.pyw imports idlelib.PyShell and calls its `main`. The shell
itself is implemented by the PyShell class, for which the window title
is

    "Python " + platform.python_version() + " Shell"

http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/c3896275c0f6/Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py#l829

Also, the editor window's run menu has a "Python Shell" item:

    ('run', [('Python Shell', '<<open-python-shell>>')])

http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/c3896275c0f6/Lib/idlelib/Bindings.py#l59