I have recently started using Xubuntu 8.04 Hardy, just installed Idle 1.2.2 and saved helloworld.py as instructed in tutorial. The tutorial says that I will be able to get the output through Run Module(F5) but when I click Run Module it doesn't run the out put and gives me the message:
"There's an error in your program: invalid syntax"
I have checked a thousand times and I dont see any typing errors that I could have made.
Someone please help me to get through this hurdle.

I have also tried running the saved file in the terminal: "python helloworld.py" and it gives me this message:

python: can't open file 'helloworld.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

I read in couple of posts that you have to give the path to the file. I tried doing that aswell (python /media/e/Programming helloworld.py) but it gives me this message:

python: can't open file 'helloworld.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

I tried opening a terminal at the location of the file and tried running the file, it fails to run it from there as well.

What am I doing wrong? I don't think I have made a mistake with the program script because I just copied and pasted it from the Tutorial and saved the file at this location /media/e/Programming where e is my sdb1 mount.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to Linux Questions.

1) helloworld.py from ?
http://www.pygtk.org/pygtk2tutorial/.../helloworld.py
Which tutorial ?? It is possible that the module 'run.py'
is used, but the command 'python helloworld.py' just works
without displaying anything in the terminal window.

2)'idle' has some bugs, but can "save".
(Seems always to say "invalid syntax" when saving)
..This site also suggests using another tool :
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....d3677c6f70e67f
free wing ide (wingide-101)
http://www.wingware.com/downloads/wingide-101

3) '/media' is not meant to be used for developing,
don't do that. Usually it is a good idea only to use
'/home/"user"/ for such work. (/home/lax/tmp and ..
/home/lax/my_python etc. etc.) Using system "places"
will at some time make your system unusable.

4) To execute a python command : The full path should
work, else : 'cd "to directory where file.py is"' ...
and next 'python file.py'

Good Luck !

thanks knudfl,

I think I realized what I mistakes I had made. I didn't realize that you had to have your Python shell opened so that your IDLE Run module worked. When I had both the windows opened, the F5 command worked and I was able to get the output of the script.

What I also realized is that the script files that I had saved through IDLE had some header lines that Python doesn't typically have. That is why it wasn't reading the script files. I tried saving the same file under text editor and that seemed to run okay.

Also, like you said, I realized that it is better to save the files within the home folders so that you don't have permission issues. Saving the files on a Sdb1 device, for me personally, was a hard task to tackle because of the permission issues.

Thanks for attempting to answer and help out. It means a lot. I was a little worried for sometime, and thought that no one really bothered to answer. This forum is a great resource and an excellent information library.