[Pythonmac-SIG] findertools.launch reports "no eligible process"

[Drew Houston]

hi there,

i was wondering if anyone else has seen this behavior with the 
findertools.launch() function. the docs indicate that when given a 
pathname, launch(path) will launch a Finder window with that path. but 
when i try to launch any valid path i get this error:

 >>> os.path.exists("/Users/drew/Documents")
True
 >>> findertools.launch("/Users/drew/Documents")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File 
"/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4//lib/python2.4/plat-mac/findertools.py", 
line 45, in launch
    return finder.open(fss)
  File 
"/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4//lib/python2.4/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages/Finder/Standard_Suite.py", 
line 248, in open
    _arguments, _attributes)
  File 
"/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4//lib/python2.4/plat-mac/aetools.py", 
line 226, in send
    return self.sendevent(self.newevent(code, subcode, parameters, 
attributes))
  File 
"/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4//lib/python2.4/plat-mac/aetools.py", 
line 220, in sendevent
    self.send_timeout)
MacOS.Error: (-600, 'no eligible process with specified descriptor')
 >>>

i get the same error across reboots, on real hardware (x86) or a VM; 
from a Terminal window or IDLE; with directories or files or 
applications, etc. -- all this -600 error; (if i specify an invalid path 
i do get a file not found error.) i mostly come from windows land (and 
basically looking for a stand-in for ShellExecute), so if i'm doing 
something horribly wrong please let me know :)

i'm using OS X 10.4.9 and MacPython 2.4.4 and can't think of anything 
unusual that might be causing it. (killing the finder and restarting it 
also does not help; the process is certainly running.)

thanks!

drew