[Newbie] Python as a frontend to other apps.

[Patrick H. Mullins]

Hello.  I'm just starting out with Python and I've already hit a
road block.  I'm trying to write a frontend for a commandline
app called idea, which is a basic encryption program..  This
app takes 3 arguments which I've stored as variables.
The problem is that I can't seem to get python to output the
contents of the variables on the commandline:

import os
password="secretstuff"
infile="test.idea"
outfile="test.zip"
os.system("idea -dk %(password) %(infile) %(outfile)")

Everything works fine up until it hits %(password) and so on.
What am I doing wrong here??????

Thanks!

Patrick Mullins
pmullins at gatecom.com