IDLE won't launch, and other frustrations

[Michael A. Covington]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at comcast.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.312.1080094713.742.python-list at python.org...
> [Michael A. Covington]
> > On the trail of figuring out why IDLE won't launch, look at this:
> >
> > Python 2.3.3 (#51, Dec 18 2003, 20:22:39) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)]
> > on win32
> > Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> > >>> import Tkinter
> > >>> Tkinter._test()
> > Traceback (most recent call last):
> >   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> >   File "C:\PYTHON23\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 3640, in _test
> >     root = Tk()
> >   File "C:\PYTHON23\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 1564, in __init__
> >     self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className)
> > _tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following
> > directories:
> >     {C:\WN16\LIB\TCL7.6} {C:\WN16\LIB\TCL7.6} C:/WN16/LIB/tcl8.4
> > C:/Python23/lib/tcl8.4 C:/lib/tcl8.4 C:/library
> > This probably means that Tcl wasn't installed properly.
> > >>>
> >
> > Here \WN16 is where *another* TCL/TK application *used* to reside.
> > And the TCL stuff definitely *does* exist under
> > C:\Python23\tcl\tcl8.4 (not lib\tcl8.4).
> >
> > By default does Python 2.3.3 install itself incorrectly???!!
>
> No, it means Python is a good citizen but WN16 was a criminal <wink>.
>
> Installing Python won't interfere with any other Tcl/Tk-using app on your
> system, because Python is polite and considerate.
>
> WN16 probably set an environment variable, or more than one, forcing every
> Tcl/Tk on the box to use the old version WN16 installed.  That's
anti-social
> of it, but not Python's doing.  Do "set | sort" from a DOS box, and look
for
> envars with names starting with TCL or TK.  I'm betting you'll find at
least
> one, pointing to a directory under C:\WIN16.  If you do, get rid of it,
and
> then Tkinter should work fine.
>

Thanks.  Sure enough, it did.  I'll zap 'em.