[Tutor] Python Image Library

[eryk sun]

On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 10:33 PM, Michael C
<mysecretrobotfactory at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 3:30 PM, eryk sun <eryksun at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You're probably running a .py script that's associated with py.exe or
>> python.exe. These executables create a new console (i.e. an instance
>> of the console host process, conhost.exe), if they don't inherit one
>> from their parent process. The new console defaults to creating a
>> visible window. Change the file extension to .pyw. This file extension
>> should be associated with pyw.exe or pythonw.exe, which will not
>> create a console.
>>
>> FYI, the cmd shell is unrelated to that console window. Windows users
>> often confuse the cmd shell with the console window that it uses. I
>> suppose it's less confusing on Linux. Like cmd, bash will inherit the
>> parent's terminal/console; however, it doesn't automatically spawn a
>> terminal on Linux if the parent doesn't have one. (Getting that
>> behavior on Windows requires the DETACHED_PROCESS creation flag.)
>> Since Windows users typically run cmd.exe to get a command-line shell
>> for running programs, they associate cmd.exe with the console window.
>> It isn't obvious that other programs create consoles without any
>> associated instance of cmd.exe.
>
> Actually, that is the whole script! I didn't get used to have the cmd.exe
> window pop up at all, could it be something I did?

Changing the script's extension to .pyw didn't prevent the console
from appearing? Or did you not try it?

Also, to reiterate, the cmd shell doesn't create or own any window,
and unless something really weird is going on, there's no cmd.exe
instance associated with the console window that you're seeing. cmd
can use a console via standard I/O File handles, and usually does, but
not always. It's no different from python.exe, powershell.exe, or any
other console application. Really, there is no such thing as a "cmd
window", "python window", or "PowerShell window". Because these are
long-running shell processes (e.g. Python's REPL), people are inclined
to think in those terms, and that's fine, but would you call it a
"where.exe window", "chcp.com window", "doskey.exe window",
"whoami.exe window", "findstr.exe window"? I think not. It's clear
that these programs simply use the console; they don't own it. Neither
do shells, but in the case of shells and other long-running console
processes, we're loose with language for convenience -- as long as it
doesn't confuse our understanding of how things really work.