Broken examples

[Terry Reedy]

norseman wrote:
> 
> I'm only talking about IPC related.
> I have googled, yahooed, and so forth for several months now. ALL 
> examples I've come across have failed including those pertinent in the 
> Python doc area.
> 
> Outline:
>     cd somedir
>     ls -1 *.xls >thislist      #ls hyphen one
>     python process.py
>                 (yes - ls can go here if wanted. easier to edit outside)
>         open thislist
>         loop until done
>             start excel (or scalc)
>             have it open file
>             have it save file as a .csv (or .dbf)
>             close excell (or scalc)
> 
> Would seem to be a trivial exercise.
> Starting Excel or any other executable in system path works fine.
> popen3 opens whatever and reports no errors. r,w,and e all check as 
> being created.
> 
> r,w,e= os.popen3('ls -l')
> print r.read()             # works as expected
> 
> ALL attempts to send instructions to Excel or scalc FAIL COMPLETELY.
> Actually, any attempt to communicate with a 'Point'n'Click' program 
> fails without errors being cited. They don't use redirectable command 
> line interfaces (like piping between programs) do they? :)
> 
> Trying to use the examples I have found that supposedly setup IPC's of 
> one type or another have all failed with errors that point to things 
> that make no sense in the first place.
> 
> Before you post a code example or a link to one be kind enough to run it 
> yourself first.  You may get a surprise.  The OOo examples do not work. 
> Not even when switching my system to their version.  One problem they 
> have is asking a general user to change to places the user has no place 
> being and then to work there without permissions.  I guess somebody 
> insists on doing all their work with root clearance down in the middle 
> of the vendor's tree. I don't think that's a healthy way to do things, 
> do you?
> 
> In OOo in particular, using their version of VBA one can create the 
> macro and even port it to python. If one found the correct Microsoft 
> suite docs I suspect that same could be done there too. But that doesn't 
> activate it from a python control. As for setting the macro to run at 
> startup, well... maybe I had other uses in mind today???? Besides the 
> moment I change it, coworker in other room is going to decide to... :)
> 
> Let's stick to Microsoft Office and OpenSource products for now. My 
> final goal will require specific conversations with a commercial vendor.
> I would like those spread sheets working though.
> 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Steve
> norseman at hughes.net
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>