[Visualpython-users] invoking help under Python 2.3 on Mac OS X

[Joe H. <hea...@ct...>]

Hi.
Has anyone has any success in successfully invoking Help from inside 
IDLE in Python 2.3 (Fink's version, installed on Mac OS X 10.3.2 using 
Kelvin Chu's instructions)? Setting the BROWSER environment variable 
has no visible effect. Nicholas Riley on the Pythonmac-SIG list noted a 
bug in IDLE that mistakenly identifies the 'win' in Darwin as Microsoft 
Windows so Python thinks it's running on Windows rather than on Darwin. 
Is this the culprit:

     def python_docs(self, event=None):
         if sys.platform.count('win') or sys.platform.count('nt'):
             os.startfile(self.help_url)
             return "break"
         else:
             webbrowser.open(self.help_url)
             return "break"

Cheers,
Joe Heafner -- Astronomy/Physics Instructor (by some definitions)