problems with compiling and finding modules

[Steven Hodgen]

Hello,

I'm currently learning Python and am having a couple of problems.

I use a programmer's editor called "Visual SlickEdit".  I'm trying to set 
it up to work with Python.  So, how do I get it to compile a python file.  
I can't seem to find a command line method for either compiling a .py file 
to a .pyc file or even just do a syntax check for finding errors in the 
editor.  I found a file called py_compile, but this just seems to add a 
function called compile which I can execute from the interpreter but not 
the command line.  The file compileall, will compile everything in 
directory or entire tree, but not just a single file.  I would asume there 
must be a way short of writing my own single file compile script.  I 
understand I'm going to have to do something like:

  python compile_command myfile.py

but what do I put in for compile_command?

Also, how do I change the working directory from within IDLE?  If I open my 
.py file from the Windows Explorer using a right click and choose 'Edit 
with IDLE', everything works fine, but if I 'Open...' a .py file from 
within IDLE, it can't find modules I import from.  I assume this is because 
it isn't in the current directory.

Thanks!

--Steven
steven at twitch.net