Installed 2.5.2 Intel msi on
Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition w/ SP2
on
Intel Xeon CPU 3.2GHz, 8GB of RAM

Selected IDLE from its startup menu item, but it refused to started.
Tried several times w/ the same outcome.

Disable all Operating System firewalls and try again (remember to enable
the firewalls again after the test).

This was a common problem in WinXP

Can you please run IDLE in a console window, and report the exceptions
that you get? Invoke Lib\idlelib\idle.py to do so.

After removing my Ruby installation, I got the following:

"
C:\lang\Python25>Lib\idlelib\idle.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\lang\Python25\Lib\idlelib\idle.py", line 21, in <module>
    idlelib.PyShell.main()
  File "C:\lang\Python25\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1390, in main
    root = Tk(className="Idle")
  File "C:\lang\Python25\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 1636, in __init__
    self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className, interactive,
wantobjects, useTk, sync, use)
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following
directories:
    {c:\ruby\tcl\lib\tcl8.3} {c:\ruby\tcl\lib\tcl8.3} c:/ruby/tcl/lib/tcl8.4
C:/lang/Python25/lib/tcl8.4 C:/lang/lib/tcl8.4 C:/lib/tcl8.4 C:/lang/library
C:/library C:/tcl8.4.12/library

This probably means that Tcl wasn't installed properly.
"

The tcl was installed as part of the distribution in the .msi file, how
could it not be installed properly?

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:42 PM, Martin v. Löwis <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

>
> Martin v. Löwis <martin@v.loewis.de> added the comment:
>
> Can you please run IDLE in a console window, and report the exceptions
> that you get? Invoke Lib\idlelib\idle.py to do so.
>
> ----------
> nosy: +loewis
>
> __________________________________
> Tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue2714>
> __________________________________
>

Martin Loewis had me start IDLE from a DOS prompt. The backtrace pointed to
an improper installation of tcl.

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Facundo Batista <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

>
> Facundo Batista <facundo@taniquetil.com.ar> added the comment:
>
> Disable all Operating System firewalls and try again (remember to enable
> the firewalls again after the test).
>
> This was a common problem in WinXP
>
> ----------
> nosy: +facundobatista
>
> __________________________________
> Tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue2714>
> __________________________________
>

Check whether the TCL_DIR or TK_DIR environment variables are set. If
so, unset them.

All I needed was starting a new shell/DOS prompt. In the old one, there were
residual environment variables having to do with TCL set up by Ruby
installation.

You can close the ticket now.

Thanks,

Greg

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Martin v. Löwis <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

>
> Martin v. Löwis <martin@v.loewis.de> added the comment:
>
> Check whether the TCL_DIR or TK_DIR environment variables are set. If
> so, unset them.
>
> __________________________________
> Tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue2714>
> __________________________________
>

Closed as by OP indication.