On 8/26/2014 2:01 PM, Twirlip2 wrote:
I've been using IDLE with Python 3.4.0 on Windows XP (SP3),
...
Does all non-Python stuff seem to be working?
For a few days, I'd been frequently running a second instance of IDLE, to test a new version of the same script. Today, having closed this instance, I tried to open one again, but I briefly saw an error message about not being able to create a thread, or something like that.
In Command Prompt, 'python -m idlelib' should run Idle and display (without disappearing) any available error messages.
Idle imports tkinter which imports threading. If that fails, Idle never visibly starts. If the imports succeed, and Idle starts, but cannot connect to a subprocess, it displays a message in Shell. (I have occasionally seen this, but close Idle and retry always works.) Your description suggests the former.
Does 'python' itself start. If so, and you get interactive prompt, does 'import threading' work? Ditto 'import tkinter'? If so, does 'tkinter.Tk()' bring up an empty tk window?
Back at interactive prompt, what happens with 'python -m test'? There are a couple of modules that may sometimes fail, but the rest should not.
3. Installed 3.4.1 (over 3.4.0). It made no difference to the problem. (I also had to do a hard reboot of the system, after it had completely ground to a halt when I tried to reboot in the normal way.)
Upgrading on top of broken Python may not work. If the tests above fail, re-install after un-installing. Un-installing will leave /python34 but only with things you added (or separately installed). You may need to 're-install' 3.4.0 to un-install.
-- Terry Jan Reedy -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
