maintain 2 versions of python on my computer

[Mike]

> On unix you would start the file with a "hashbang" e.g.
>
> #!/usr/bin/python3
>
> Fraid I don't know if that works on XP though.
>
> Roger.

It does not; Windows associates applications with file extensions.
However, I have used something like this to get something like the
Unix shebang behavior:

@echo off
rem = """ ver26.bat: Python 2.6
C:\Python26\python -x %~f0 %*
goto END
rem """
# ver26.py wrapped in ver26.bat to mimic Unix #! behavior

import sys
print sys.version

rem = """
:END
pause
rem """

@echo off
rem = """ ver31.bat: Python 3.1
D:\Python31\python -x %~f0 %*
goto END
rem """
# ver31.py wrapped in ver31.bat to mimic Unix #! behavior

import sys
print(sys.version)

rem = """
:END
pause
rem """

I cannot remember where I first saw this, and don't think I have ever
seen it since.  It seems like a bit of a hack, but I use it from time
to time when I cannot rely on Windows file associations. Perl has
a much cleaner way to accomplish the same thing for Windows (see the
pl2bat.bat script that ships with
Perl Windows distributions).

Mike