[Tutor] Optimally configuring Emacs for W7-64bit and Python

boB Stepp robertvstepp at gmail.com
Wed May 23 04:13:51 CEST 2012


> Install python mode.
> Learn how to get the python shell running inside emacs.
> Learn how to get a cmd shell running inside emacs
> Learn how to do split windows

On some of the pages I recall looking at, it was mentioned that Emacs
comes with two major modes for Python. It was not clear to me which
one should be preferred. Also, mention was made of several extensions
to Emacs, that provided things like code completion, etc. It was not
clear to me if these would work with Windows and it was not clear to
me if these were desirable or not. So, I was curious about whether
anyone had definite recommendations about these things.

> One extra that I would strongly encourage for working with Python on windows
> is to supplement the emacs debugger mode with winpdb. It can be had for
> Linux too, I don't know about Solaris. But I think your Solaris is non GUI
> based anyway as I recall? So that won't matter.

Now I just looked at winpdb and it states that it must have wxPython
installed. So, I went to its website and the latest version is
2.8.12.1. If the versions of wxPython parallels that of Python then
this means that version 3.x won't be supported. Is this correct? Now
it did mention that there was a console version of winpdb that did not
require wxPython, but would this be what you intended for me, Alan?

The Solaris at work is Solaris 8 and has many GUI-based apps, but I am
forced to use whatever is on the computers. Normally, we are not
allowed to add any software to these workstations as they are
radiation oncology planning stations with associated FDA approvals "as
sold". At the main site where I work we have three planning stations,
one an 810X, one a Sun Blade and the other is even older hardware (I
can't remember its exact designation.). The 810X is running on Solaris
10 while the latter two have been upgraded to Solaris 8. The Solaris 8
machines do not have Python installed! Emacs is version 20.7.1 and the
Perl I've been using is version 5.005_03. The Solaris 10 machine has
Python 2.4.4, but this is of no use to me as the same scripts have to
be able to run on all three machines. However, there are plans after
July 1st to upgrade all three machines to thin clients connected to an
enterprise server. Hopefully if this actually happens then Python will
be available on everything.

Cheers!
boB


More information about the Tutor mailing list