visualpython-users

[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)

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

[Jonathan B. <jbr...@ea...>]

On Fri, 2004-02-06 at 13:44, Joe Heafner wrote:
> 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"

The simplest workaround is to simply remove the test for the presence of
Windows, making the function:

     def python_docs(self, event=None):
         webbrowser.open(self.help_url)
         return "break"


-Jonathan Brandmeyer