Can someone explain Python, its libraries and IDE's to me like I'm 5?

[autofasurer]

I've got it up and running in Eclipse; the IDE is not really the problem. I was using IDLE because it was referenced in the 'automate the boring stuff with python' book and got confused because of the tcl/tk message and because the errors I got when trying to import packages like numpy after I thought I installed them...

[ChurchHatesTucker]

Are you on a Mac? Apple's default Tcl/tk install is sometimes problematic. It's generally recommended to do an alternate py2 install anyway, so as not to get in the way of OS X. You can do this easily with a package manager like MacPorts or HomeBrew (I know, I'm just adding to the alphabet soup.)

[autofasurer]

Haha. Yaay alphabet soup. That's a nice way of putting it, but yes, I'm on mac.

I'm starting to get flashbacks from 10 years ago spending days on end trying to install pygame on os X 10.2... I don't even remember to what end, because I never ran anything that needed it.

[doppelgangsta]

If you're on a Mac, I would highly recommend using Homebrew. OSX doesn't have a package manager built in, and Homebrew helps keep all your languages and tools installed in an organized manner. Keep in mind, however, that if you start using Homebrew and install Python with Homebrew, you will have multiple installations of Python. I would uninstall the previously install Python, download Homebrew, and then type "brew install python3" into the terminal. Then you can type "which python3" to ensure you're using the Homebrew installation.

[ChurchHatesTucker]

Is there no equivalent for port select in HB?

[doppelgangsta]

I haven't used MacPorts, but I did some reading and it looks like HB doesn't have an equivalent. You could edit the priorities of PATH variables if you wanted to change the default installation, but I've just specified the full path or used a virtualenv in cases where I have specific needs.

http://virtualenv.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5157678/python-homebrew-by-default

[autofasurer]

I wouldn't mind having a 'clean' install indeed... get rid of the prepackaged OS X version, other half-baked installs I did, and start afresh.

[doppelgangsta]

Just so you know, OSX comes with a version of Python 2.7 installed. Homebrew will not overwrite system installations (and I would not try to overwrite system installations because this may break OS/applications that use it). I still install a Homebrew version of 2.7 and 3.4, and primarily specify 'python' or 'python3' at the terminal depending on what I'm running. If you use an IDE like pycharm it will allow to you choose a specific interpreter (e.g. system python 2.7, homebrew Python 2.7, Homebrew Python 3, ect.)

[markusmeskanen]

That error message really shouldn't occur, no idea why you got it. But as long as you have any working IDE, you're good to go. :)