New to Python-- Help

[John & Mary Cook]

I just installed Python on Windows XP Pro. When I enter 'python' at the >>>
prompt in Pythonwin IDE I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
Name Error: name 'python' is not defined

Can anyone help?

Thank you,

J. T. Cook

[Philippe Martin]

John & Mary Cook wrote:

I just installed Python on Windows XP Pro. When I enter 'python' at the

>prompt in Pythonwin IDE I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
Name Error: name 'python' is not defined

Can anyone help?

Thank you,

J. T. Cook

Did you install Python, or Pythonwin ?

Cannot use #2 without #1.

Philippe

[Jason]

John & Mary Cook wrote:

I just installed Python on Windows XP Pro. When I enter 'python' at the >>>
prompt in Pythonwin IDE I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
Name Error: name 'python' is not defined

Can anyone help?

Thank you,

J. T. Cook

That's because the Pythonwin IDE with the >>prompt is already running
the Python interpreter. The Python interpreter allows you to run
python statements and expressions with instant feedback.

Python doesn't define the 'python' name inside of itself.

I recommend that you read through the Python tutorial, and maybe do a
Google search for Python tutorials.

When you next see the >>prompt, try typing in the following:
import this
print ' '.join( ('Python', 'rocks!') )

[akameswaran]

Are you refering to IDLE? or simply running python at the command
line?

In either case - python is just the language's name. It is not a
defined name within the language.

If you describe what you are trying to do, perhaps some more specific
help could be had.

What is happening:
There currently is no name in the interpreter called python and it is
telling you that

Try this.

>>python = "A cool language"
python

'A cool language'

>>dir()

['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'python']

>>>

btw: dir() is a way of getting the currently defined names
you could also try this - just to get a feel for the names

you can also request the names going down the heirarchy.

enter:
dir(__doc__)
and see what happens.

Happy Pythoning.

John & Mary Cook wrote:

I just installed Python on Windows XP Pro. When I enter 'python' at the >>>
prompt in Pythonwin IDE I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
Name Error: name 'python' is not defined

Can anyone help?

Thank you,

J. T. Cook

[Ravi Teja]

Philippe Martin wrote:

John & Mary Cook wrote:

I just installed Python on Windows XP Pro. When I enter 'python' at the

>>prompt in Pythonwin IDE I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
Name Error: name 'python' is not defined

Can anyone help?

Thank you,

J. T. Cook

Did you install Python, or Pythonwin ?

Cannot use #2 without #1.

He probably used ActivePython. It includes both. Besides PythonWin IDE
won't start without Python :-)

John:
Try this tutorial. It does not assume a programming background.
http://honors.montana.edu/~jjc/easytut/easytut/

You already started Python when you started PythonWin IDE. You won't
need to type python in it again :-)

In the tutorial I linked, PythonWin is analogous to IDLE (another IDE)
mentioned in it. You should also have IDLE installed in your menus.