Slightly OT Linux newbie question

[Chris Barker]

jb wrote:
> When I worked under MS-Win everything was very simple and comfortable:
Personally,. I find windows very uncomfortable: it's all what you are
used to. Anyway, the only difference is that the way you installed
Python on windows apparently added stuff to the Start menu. I don't
think anyone has botherred to make a Python installer that adds stuff to
the KDE mwnues foir you , though it certainly could be done.

>There
> was a menu

Read the KDE docs, you can add these menu items yourself.

> where I could select the IDLE or the documentation or the Python
> prompt, whatever I wanted.

The docs, if you downloaded the HTML version, are somewhere on your
system. Find them (try using "locate" at teh command line, it's very
handy, just remember that it doesn't know about newly installed files)
you can then just put a bookmark in for the docs in Konqueror, as it is
a browser and file manager in one.

To start IDLE, hit alt+F2, and type "idle", or use the K-menu item: run
command, or start a terminal and tyupe idle in that. For the python
prompt, type python in a terminal. You can create a KDE "link to
application" that opens a terminal and runs Python for you. right click
somewhere and under new yo'll find what you need.

While you might wonder why someone didn't just build an installer that
put all this in the menue for you, I would say that that is not
desireable. The are mjany hundreds of command line programs on Linux I
wouold NOT want every one of them in the menus. Many folkd install
python to use for CGI scripting, or to run other peoples scripts (RedHat
sysadmin stuff, among others), and have no desire to access teh prompt
themselves. Learn to set up the apps you want in KDE, and you'll have a
nice compact, custom system.

-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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Chris.Barker at noaa.gov