Re: [pygame] Installing Python 3 and pygame

[Irv Kalb]

Thank you for the very quick update!

This will certainly be helpful to people who are trying to install pygame.

Irv


> On May 17, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Thomas Kluyver  wrote:
> 
> On 17 May 2017 at 20:57, Irv Kalb  > wrote:
>  But I would strongly suggest to whoever in is charge of that part of the 
> pygame site, that they change the instructions to simply be:
> 
> pip install pygame
> 
> or
> 
> pip3 install pygame
> 
> It would have saved me a lot of time.
> 
> I'm not in charge, but I've edited the 'Getting Started' wiki page to use 
> more standard commands. Sorry that you had to spend time figuring it out!
> 
> Thomas

Re: [pygame] Installing Python 3 and pygame

[Thomas Kluyver]

On 17 May 2017 at 20:57, Irv Kalb  wrote:

>  But I would strongly suggest to whoever in is charge of that part of the
> pygame site, that they change the instructions to simply be:
>
> pip install pygame
>
> or
>
> pip3 install pygame
>
> It would have saved me a lot of time.
>

I'm not in charge, but I've edited the 'Getting Started' wiki page to use
more standard commands. Sorry that you had to spend time figuring it out!

Thomas

Re: [pygame] Installing Python 3 and pygame

[Irv Kalb]

Ian,

Thank you for your very clear and helpful answers.

I did de-install the 32-bit version of Python, and re-installed the 64 bit 
version.  After that, installing pygame went smoothly.

I don't want to bother getting the python3 command working - it's just not 
important to me.  But I would strongly suggest to whoever in is charge of that 
part of the pygame site, that they change the instructions to simply be:

pip install pygame

or

pip3 install pygame

It would have saved me a lot of time.

Thanks again very much,

Irv

> On May 16, 2017, at 5:46 PM, Ian Mallett  wrote:
> 
> On Tue, May 16, 2017 at 5:28 PM, Irv Kalb  > wrote:
> 1)  What does the error message associated with the:  "python3 -m pip install 
> pygame -- user "  mean?
> ​Exactly what it says. It's not recognized as a program. This means that it 
> can't find "python3.exe", "python3.bat", or anything else named "python3" on 
> your PATH.​
> Obviously it is not recognizing 'python3' - what do I do to fix that?
> ​Since you clicked the add-to-path option in the installer, probably Python 
> is already on your PATH. I think the issue is, on Windows, it's "python.exe", 
> not "python3.exe". Does using "python" instead of "python3" work?
> Is fixing that important if I don't intend to use the command line for 
> development?
> ​Not really, no. If you want to "fix" it, you can make a symlink to the 
> "python.exe" named "python3.exe", or something. Something like:
> cd C:/Python36
> mklink /D python3.exe python.exe
> I personally have it set up a little differently, with subversions for 
> testing: I have e.g. "python27.exe", "python35.exe", etc..
> ​
> 2)  Why do the instructions on the official pygame site tell users to use 
> this command, which generates an error, when the "pip install pygame" or 
> "pip3 install pygame" commands seem to do the job?
> ​I don't know, but I suspect that these are UNIX-compatible commands, instead 
> of Windows-.
> 
> 3)  (Suggestion) Perhaps the wording for Windows installations could be 
> modified to include the extra step that tell users how to bring up the 
> command line (for people like me and my students who might now have a clue 
> about this).   The documentation for the Mac installation could also be 
> modified to say that you need to bring up the terminal program to enter 
> commands.
> ​I think it's a bit trivial (although for absolute newbies, I understand 
> perhaps not), but I don't see any reason why not.​
>  
> 4)  Finally, is running Python 3.6.1 in 32 bit mode appropriate with pygame?
> ​On a 64-bit OS, it's not ideal, but it's probably fine, so long as it works. 
> The important thing to note is that the Python bitiness and the PyGame (or 
> any other package) bitiness need to match, or you'll get cryptic errors at 
> runtime.​
> Since I have a 64 bit operating system, should I really go through the steps 
> again and find and install the 64 bit version of python instead?
> ​Ideally, yes. Probably, you want to uninstall the 32-bit version first.
> Why would default download default to a 32 bit version?  (I understand that 
> these questions are out of the control of the pygame area, but I want to make 
> sure that I have the correct environment, and that I tell my college how to 
> get the correct environment for all the computers at the school.)
> ​Unsure. 32-bit will work on 64-bit (but not vice-versa), so it's a safer 
> default in some sense. Still, 32-bit computers are pretty old today, and 
> people who have them usually know about it. I'd make the user actively 
> choose, without a default available—but it's sortof a UI question.
> ​
> Sorry for the length of the post, but I expected that getting this 
> environment set up would be a lot easier.  If my students were to face these 
> problems trying to install it themselves, they would be completely lost and 
> complain bitterly.
> 
> Irv
> ​Ian​