On May 3, 7:46 am, Dave Angel <da...@ieee.org> wrote: > seanm...@gmail.com wrote: > > I am going to try posting here again with more detail to see if I can > > finally get my first program to work. > > > I am working on a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.4.11. I opened a new window > > in IDLE to create a file. The file had only one line of code and was > > saved as module1.py. I saved it to Macintosh HD. The one line of code > > in the file is copied below: > > > print 'Hello module world!' > > > I closed the file and tried to run it in IDLE and Terminal, but I have > > had no success. I'll paste my commands and the error messages below > > (for IDLE, then Terminal). Any help would be very much appreciated. I > > feel like the marathon just started and I've fallen flat on my face. > > Thanks. > > > IDLE 2.6.2 > > >>>> python module1.py > > > SyntaxError: invalid syntax > > > sean-m-computer:~ seanm$ python > > Python 2.6.2 (r262:71600, Apr 16 2009, 09:17:39) > > [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5250)] on darwin > > Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. > > >>>> python module1.py > > > File "<stdin>", line 1 > > python module1.py > > ^ > > SyntaxError: invalid syntax > > In both cases, you're already running python. Why would you expect to > have to run python inside python? > > Once you're at a python prompt (in either of your cases), you use the > command "import" to load a module. And you do not put the ".py" > extension on the parameter. Specifically, it should look like this, and > very similar for IDLE. > > M:\Programming\Python\sources\temp>c:\ProgFiles\Python26\python.exe > Python 2.6.2 (r262:71605, Apr 14 2009, 22:40:02) [MSC v.1500 32 bit > (Intel)] on > win32 > Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. > >>> import module1 > Hello module world! > >>>
Dave, importing modules which have side effects like printing is NOT a good habit to which a beginner should be introduced. He needs to know how to run a script. Sean, in Terminal, instead of typing python type python module1.py and I suggest that you give your script (not module) a more meaningful name. HTH, John -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list