I have Irv Kalb’s Object-Oriented Python in front of me.
The author states that to install Python, all that’s needed is to go to Python.org and click the download tab.
From there it should be easy to choose Windows and install Python.
This was Not my experience. I had to instead weed through dozens of releases, not knowing which to use. I chose the one with the 64-bit Windows Installer (.msi) file, thinking this would be a good choice.
I noticed that the tail end of the file name had the letters amd and I had to wonder if this was going to work with my Celeron (Intel) chip.
The install routine went through its paces and said everything installed successfully. I had even checked the box to add Python to the user path.
I tried following the author’s suggested command, to install PyGame:
python3 -m pip install -U pip --user
However, I was immediately told python3 was unrecognized and that I might have to go to the Microsoft store?
I rebooted, thinking maybe that would make a difference. Silly me. It did not.
So this is my recent experience with Python!
I am using perhaps the most popular OS in the world, Windows 11. Just thought you might want to know!
Windows is the single most annoying platform to try to support, so a lot of instructions simply won’t bother mentioning it. Depending on how old your book is, it might also be completely out of date. I would recommend getting some Windows-specific installation and setup instructions, as a lot of things are going to be different from the rest of the world.
Good to know. I thought it would be good to go with a .msi file since I’ve had the most luck with those installation files.
I finally decided to do what I was told by the command prompt message and just let the Windows Store (not my favorite thing) fetch Python for me. Would you know? It worked!! Except it didn’t install the Idle app, but I did that myself with a command line. lol
The book couldn’t be much newer, as it was released in January of 2022, so not even a year old.
Weird cuz the author provided those command lines that use python3 to verify pip is installed, and install pygame.
I finally decided to do what I was told by the command prompt message and just let the Windows Store fetch Python for me. Would you know? It worked!! Except it didn’t install the Idle app, but I did that myself.
The book is new, released in January of 2022, so not even a year old.
The main Python site seems easy enough to navigate to me, with a fairly obvious “Download” link (which takes you to the latest release) both on the main page and on the downloads page (accessed via the menu, which looks like it has recently changed, at least on mobile).
It looks like you missed it. Once on the latest release page, you can download the “Recommended” file (64-bit x86 full installer. x86-64 is known as amd64).
Any documentation which suggests installing on Windows via the installer, while instructing you to invoke python3 at the command line, is wrong. At least it should say “on Windows, replace python3 with python” (or py, if you also installed the py launcher).
And yes, Windows is the most used desktop OS, although i believe the most used version is 10.
It’s also unfortunate that Linux (python3) and Windows (py) have different “best” command names, and it’s often forgotten (or not known) that this should be explained.
I think of these the download site has the highest chance of being improved.
I searched for ‘Recommended’ on that page and it seems to be in the last row. However, when I hover over the link in the 1st column of that last row, the proposed file to download is the amd64.exe file. not the arm64.
I did not go near the arm64 file because I (mistakenly?) thought that had to be associated with an ARM (mobile) chip, as opposed to the intel J4125 chip in my BeeLink GK mini. Hmm. My bad? Or, bad filename?
The reference to python3 worked after I did what the command prompt message told me to do, namely go to Windows store and get it there. That actually worked, although it did not install Idle, which I then installed myself, using:
python3 -m - pip install -U idle --user
Sorry about my comment about operating systems. I was frustrated with what I thought should be the simplest of installs.
For example:
Just a week ago, I installed ChucK (the computer langugage) without a hitch once I found and used their .msi installation file.
Thank you for your help!
Slightly Off Topic:
If you or someone you know likes programming and making music, I highly recommend ChucK, available free at Chuck.org! There’s a great book, Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists.
In addition to amd64, there is also arm64 which is equally confusing since it sounds like it is for the mobile chip! lol
Ironically, when I thought I had installed successfully, and entered python3 as a command line prompt, I was taken to the Windows Store, which installed Python successfully me because the next time I went to the command prompt, python3 as a command was recognized… on a Windows machine. Go figure!
So maybe the author of the Object-Oriented Python by Irv Kalb isn’t that far off when he says to do the following to add PyGame (which worked).
IDLE comes with the standard library (the modules developed by the python-dev group and bundled with the Python interpreter), in the form of the idlelib module and idle launcher script. Maybe your installer does not include IDLE, or maybe you have to find the launcher.
Python hasn’t been distributed as an MSI installer since 3.4.4 in 2015. The latest version is 3.11.0. Here’s a link to the 3.11.0 downloads. You probably want “Windows installer (64-bit)”.
AMD designed the AMD64 architecture in 2000. The first AMD64 CPU was released in 2003. In 2001, Intel released a 64-bit architecture called Itanium (IA-64), which was rejected by the marketplace. In response to AMD64, Intel designed the “Intel 64” architecture. The first Intel 64 CPU was released in 2004. Intel 64 is basically AMD64. There are differences, but practically speaking for application designers AMD64 and Intel 64 are the same 64-bit architecture, commonly called x86-64 or just x64.
For mysterious reasons, the standard distribution of Python on Windows does not include versioned executable names such as “python3.exe” or “python3.11.exe”. I think it should.
The distribution on the Microsoft Store installs versioned appexec links, so if you get Python 3.11 from there, you can run “python3” or “python3.11” out of the box.
The distribution on the Microsoft Store includes IDLE. I just installed 3.11 from the store, and verified that IDLE was installed. You can run it as “idle.exe”, “idle3.exe”, or “idle3.11.exe”. There’s also a shortcut in the start menu named “IDLE (Python 3.11)”.
I searched for ‘Recommended’ on that page and it seems to be in the last row.
@Roark by “recommended” I think @EpicWink was referring to the prominent button at the very top of the page labeled “Download the latest version for Windows” that comes before all the later detailed version links.
