[Tutor] Can't start IDLE 2.6 on Mac

[Alan Gauld]

"Rob Stevenson" <rob.rstevenson at gmail.com> wrote

> I decided to put 2.6 on it but even though it installs fine, when I 
> go to
> Applications / Python 2.6 and double click IDLE, nothing happens.

Does basic Python work?
If you open the Terminal application and type python at the prompt
does it come up? And is it the 2.6 uinstall or the pre-installed 
2.3(?)

> Am I doing something wrong?  Unfortunately I'm very new to Macs so 
> although
> I'd be happy to investigate logs, registry etc on Windows, I don't 
> know
> where to begin on OSX.

I would strongly recommend a copy of the OS X Missing Manual book.
And then, if you intend doing any coding type work on Mac,  the
Mac OS X Hacks book from O'Reilly.

Which version of Python did you install? Was it MacPython or
ActiveState's Mac distro?

You might also need to start X windows running first if you don't
have the Cocoa version of Tk installed. I can't remember which
distros have which Tk...

IDLE on Mac is somewhat disappointing in my experience!

-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld