Windows 10 - PAGE stuck on loading

[Anonymous]

Hi, everyone.

Running page.py by double clicking on it starts C:\Windwos\py.exe, and the screen is overlayed by the PAGE's inkwell / quill icon.

Below it, there's text:
Loading library lib_core.tcl...

And that's it. It's been stuck there for the past 20 minutes. There are no errors that I can see. Also, if it's of any importance, I can type over that text, delete it, etc.

The same thing happens if I restart it (kill the process, double click again). And it also happens if I open the command prompt window (always with elevated privileges), then navigate to page.py location, and starting it with

python page.py

I'm running 3.12.2 version of Python.

PAGE was installed to F:\[User]\Programs\page, instead of the default C:\page .

I have also opened the page.py file, just so I could see what it has inside, and the code is pretty straightforward.

Since I was suspecting that it might've been triggering an error of some sort, I changed the page.py file to this (posting just the relevant bit):

try:
    root.tk.eval(cmd)
    sys.exit()
except Exception as e:
    print(f"err...{e}")
    pass

After saving and running the file, I had this in the cmd window:

err...can't read "vTcl(options)": no such element in array

Both Tkinter and Tcl exist, and are visible, when I remove the line

root.tk.eval(cmd)

and replace it with:

print(root.tk.call('info', 'patchlevel'))

which printed this:

8.6.13

So, what gives? What's the issue here? Why does eval of cmd cause the error?

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add one more thing - thinking it was a path issue (since I installed it on another drive and all), I replaced this bit:

p = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
cmd = "source {" + os.path.join(os.path.dirname(p), 'page.tcl') + "}"

with this

script_directory = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
tcl_script_path = os.path.join(script_directory, 'page.tcl')

cmd = "source {" + tcl_script_path + "}"

since I noticed that page.tcl is in the same directory as page.py.

Sadly, that did not resolve the issue.

[Greg Walters]

It's probably due to your installing it in the F: drive
Could you try installing it into the C: drive?

Greg

[Anonymous]

Hi, Greg.

Of course, but I would like to avoid that, since I tend to reinstall my OS every now and then, or to revert to an earlier version. That's why I keep everything on another drive.

Is installing it into the C drive an absolute prerequisite to be able to use PAGE? At least, when it comes to using Windows, that is.

[Greg Walters]

I totally understand your concern. I've been there myself multiple times in my life back when I used Windows as my OS.
I've never tried to install anywhere other than the C: drive, and I don't think that Don has either.
I'm assuming that your F: drive is a physical drive that you have mapped. Is that correct?

I might be able to "dummy" up an F: drive on my virtual machines. I'll see if I can do this sometime this weekend.

Greg

[Anonymous]

Sorry for taking this long to reply. You're correct in assuming that it's a physical drive, and it's within my PC (not a network drive).

I sometimes take it out, and place it in an USB rack, but this a very rare occasion, perhaps once a year, and not for any reason involving Python.

[Greg Walters]

Ok. Thank you.
I'm trying to duplicate your setup on my Windows 10 Virtual box.
I'll let you know my findings.

Greg

[Greg Walters]

I suppose I should have asked this question before, but when you are trying to start PAGE, are you doing it from a command line or from the icon on the desktop?

Greg

[Greg Walters]

Ok. Here's the good news.
I've created a "E" drive on my virtual machine. It's a USB stick, but that shouldn't matter, nor should it matter that the drive is "D" or "E".

When I installed PAGE (I uninstalled all my previous PAGE installations), I use "e:\PAGE" as the location for PAGE to install.

Once it was installed, I didn't click on the desktop icon (which you should never do). Instead I created a "development" folder on my C: drive. I use the Windows File manager to go to that folder. I created another folder named "test" under that. Again, using File Manager, I navigated to that folder. Then I pressed <ctrl> l to highlight the addressbar, and typed "cmd" and pressed <enter>. This then opened a windows command prompt (otherwise known as a terminal).</enter></ctrl>

In the terminal I typed
py e:\page\page.py test1

After a couple of seconds, PAGE started to open and within about 10 seconds, I had PAGE fully running.

This is the correct way to start PAGE. In fact, I wrote a tutorial named "How to start PAGE". It is located in your distribution folder in the "docs" folder. (In your case, it will probably be d:\page\docs\How To Start Page.) There is a PDF as well as a zip file that has example code.

So, I have proven that PAGE CAN be installed in Windows on pretty much any drive mapped in the system.

Please give the above instructions a try and let me know.

Greg

[Anonymous]

I suppose I should have asked this question before, but when you are trying to start PAGE, are you doing it from a command line or from the icon on the desktop?

I was - when trying to run it for the first time (mentioned this in the first message).

Then, when it wasn't working like that, I used CMD, navigated to the PAGE installation directory (cd etc, etc), and tried running it from there with python page.py with the same result.

Now I followed your instructions, but the issue remains (please see the attached file for the setup). If I run it like that, it's still stuck on the Loading library lib_core.tcl message.

And I'm using the original page.py file, not that version which I edited (ref) when testing and debugging.

Will try reinstalling, and doing the same thing again. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Please do keep me advised.

I'm somewhat confused as to why it's giving you so much trouble.
Greg

[Anonymous]

Maybe the problem is related to "strange" characters in the path name?

I came here because I experienced the same problem (stuck on the Loading library lib_core.tcl message), but on a Ubuntu 22.04 machine (Python 3.10).

The path was (note the "{}" characters):
/home/s/Python_workspace_{PC7U}/page

Trying again using this path:
/home/s/Downloads/software/Python-related/page
PAGE does start.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look right. I get 5 separate small windows spread all over my UHD screen.

Edgar

[Greg Walters]

Thank you very much Edgar!

You might have hit the nail on the head.

As to your final comment, it is right for you to have 5 windows spread out over your screen.
Usually on the left side of the screen will be the toolbar and the Widget tree. On the top is the main menu. On the right is the attribute editor an somewhere near the center(ish) should be the Toplevel to place the widgets.

That's normal, and actually a pretty good arrangement. You can move any of the windows anywhere on the screen you find works best for you.

Greg