On Oct 8, 10:11 am, Tim Golden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > On Oct 8, 9:19 am, goldtech <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon > >>> desktop = shell.SHGetFolderPath (0, shellcon.CSIDL_DESKTOP, 0, 0) > >>> </code> > >> Tim, > > >> How did you learn Win32com? > > >> Other than the O'Reilly book, I've never found a lot of > >> documentation. > > >> Trying to browse COM in PythonWin is tough - there's tons of stuff in > >> there. I've never been able to find the Win32com classes, methods, > >> usage examples when I browse COM in PythonWin. > > >> For example where is, shell.SHGetFolderPath and shellcon.CSIDL_DESKTOP > >> officially documented? > > >> Did you learn from using Visual C++ or VB? How did you learn this > >> stuff? > > >> Thanks, > >> Lee G. > > > Pretty much the only place to learn stuff that's not in the PyWin32 > > docs is on one of the MSDN sites. Yes, that can suck. Here's the > > general page:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx > > > You can google for them too to get direct links to the MSDN page. > > > The ActiveState Python (AKA ActivePython) has an IDE that allows you > > to browse the COM module. It also has a help file that allows you to > > browse the PyWin32 docs locally. I think you can download that without > > downloading ActivePython. > > > Mike > > FWIW, the pywin32 distribution itself also comes with a local > .chm file. But aside from that, there have been several abortive > attempts -- including by Mike & myself! -- to get some kind of > online help going for pywin32, but nothing's really gained traction, > and we've all got more interesting things to be doing... > > One point to bear in mind that, more or less, the pywin32 stuff > just wraps the MS API really closely, mostly doing just enough > of the messy plumbing to present the API "objects" as Python > objects. That's to say: find out how to do it from a C++ or VB > or Delphi tutorial and translating into Python often isn't hard. > > As it happens I've been using Windows APIs for a few years, > so I have a bit of a head start. But I've answered quite > a few questions on python-win32 by putting the subject line > into Google, picking a likely-looking response and translating > it into Python. > > In this case ("How to create a file on users XP desktop") the > question was too broad and tended to throw up user-oriented > answers. I tried a few permutations, including limiting the > search to msdn.microsoft.com, none of which showed much on the > first couple of pages. A search of the pywin32.chm files does > point in the right direction, but the fact is that the shell > functionality exposed by Windows which does this kind of > stuff is non-intuitive. > > While I think everyone agrees that the Windows side of Python > could benefit from more and better docs, the general answer to: > How do I do X in Python under Windows? is: How do I X under Windows? > > TJG
I'm planning on working on that PyWin32 site some more this fall/ winter. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have volunteered my time during the summer as I have very irregular a/c at home, and thus it was very uncomfortable to use my PC when I was off work. Lame maybe, but I dislike using a computer when it's above 90 degrees and the humidity is higher than 70%. Bleh! Sorry about that. I am experimenting with MediaWiki to see if it's any faster than MoinMoin. If you know of a fast, easy-to-use wiki that's better than both of those, let me know. Mike -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
