[Tutor] Get me out of the blue (help urgently needed!)

[Tim Peters]

[Gregor Lingl]
> The problem, that makes me angry, upset and depressed ocurred
> for the first time, when I installed and tried to use Python 2.3 on a
> Windows2000 machine.
>
> It goes like this:
>
> When I try to run a program from the new IDLE an error
> occurs:
>
>  Warning: HOME environment variable points to
>  c:\epacris\tinyfugue\home
>  but the path does not exist.
> ================================ RESTART
> ================================

Use the source, Gregor.  Searching for HOME shows the source of this msg in
Lib/idlelib/configHandler.py.  The docstring for method GetUserCfgDir() is

        """
        Creates (if required) and returns a filesystem directory for
        storing user config files.
        """

That's all it's trying to do.

> At the same time Python seems to report this to ... hmmm ... to whom?

There's no such code anywhere near the bit that displays this warning.

> (Also annoying! I'd like to be informed about messages going from my
> computer to whom ever ... Whoever it may be, the adressee willnot be
> happy with error wessages like this. )

Why is it that you think IDLE is reporting this to someone?  Note that the
new IDLE *does* use sockets, but only on localhost.  It needs to do this in
order to implement the most-often requested of all features for IDLE:
running code in a separate process, in order to avoid unbreakable infinite
loops, and impossibly difficult by-hand reload() sequences.  Socket activity
may look like "network activity" to you (for example, if you're running
ZoneAlarm, it will ask whether you want to allow this traffic), but it's all
just your machine talking to itself.

These new (for IDLE) uses of sockets can be found in Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py.

> ...
> Or is it time to make a change,
> just relax,
> take it easy
> ...
> and install Linux?

IDLE will use sockets there too <wink>.