Simple Question regarding running .py program

Mon Nov 12 21:45:45 EST 2012

On Monday, 12 November 2012 21:25:08 UTC-5, Dave Angel wrote:
> On 11/12/2012 09:02 PM, Caroline Hou wrote:
>> > Hi all!
>> >
>> > I just started learning Python by myself and I have an extremely simple question now!
>> > I am in my Python interpreter now and I want to open/edit a program called nobel.py. But when I typed >>> python nobel.py, it gave me a "SyntaxError:invalid syntax”( I've changed to the correct directory)what should I do?
>> > I also want to run the program, but as I double-clicked the program, a command window pops up and closes immediately. How can I see the result of the program run?
>> > Could anyone help me please? I am pretty confused here...Thank you!
>>>> It'd be nice to specify that you're running Windows, and also what
>> version of the interpreter, although in this case the latter doesn't matter.
>>>>>> Go to a shell (cmd.exe), change to the directory containing that script,
>> and type the command as you did.
>>>> On linux: davea at think:~$ python nobel.py
>> On Windows: c:\mydir\myscript > python nobel.py
>>>> If you're already in the python interpreter, then running python is
>> useless -- it's already running. In that case, you might want to use
>> import. However, I recommend against it at first, as it opens up some
>> other problems you haven't experience with yet.
>>>> When you say you "double clicked the program', we have to guess you
>> might have meant in MS Explorer. If you do that, it launches a cmd, it
>> runs the python system, and it closes the cmd. Blame Windows for not
>> reading your mind. If you want the cmd window to stick around, you
>> COULD end your program with an raw_input function call, but frequently
>> that won't work. The right answer is the first one above... Open a
>> shell (perhaps with a menu like DOS BOX), change...
>>>> That way, when the program finishes, you can see what happened, or
>> didn't happen, and you can run it again using the uparrow key.
>>>> BTW, you don't need to send email to both the python-list and to the
>> newsgroup. The newsgroup is automatically fed from the list. But since
>> you're posting from google groups, that's just one of the bugs. Many
>> folks here simply filter out everything from google groups, so your post
>> is invisible to them.
>>>>>> -- 
>>>> DaveA

Hi Dave!
thank you very much for your quick reply! I did manage to get the program run from cmd.exe. 
So does it mean that if I want to use python interactively,I should use the interpreter,while if I just want to run a python program, I should use DOS shell instead?
Also, how could I edit my script? I have sth called "IDLE" installed along with python. Is it the right place to write/edit my script?
Sorry about these semi-idiot questions but it is really hard to find an article or book that covers such basic stuffs! 
Thank you!
Caroline Hou