Member Avatar for magneto

OK, I am very new in programming, and I installed python2.5.1 and pygame, and I wrote the hello world programme etc. and I ran it in the python shell. But the problem is, I can't run any python document outside the shell. I tried an example in pygame, and the examples in python, but the same happens. A brief shell opens for a few milliseconds, the closes. Why does this happen and can I correct it?

  • 4 Contributors
  • 5 Replies
  • 121 Views
  • 3 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by laseredd

Dani AI

Generated

What you saw is the normal Windows behavior: double‑clicking a .py file starts Python, the script runs, and when it finishes (or crashes) the console closes immediately. For Pygame examples this often happens when the script returns right away because there is no event loop to keep the window open, or because an exception occurs during startup.

’s symptom is exactly that. ’s quick fix of adding a pause at the end will keep the window open for simple tests, but—as later noted—it can hide exceptions. ’s advice to run code inside an IDE (IDLE, DrPython, etc.) is better for debugging because the IDE captures tracebacks. ’s automation is clever for convenience, but it’s fragile for GUI programs and when exceptions happen early.

Practical debugging steps (recommended):

  • Open a Command Prompt, change to your script folder, and run python yourscript.py so any error messages and tracebacks remain visible.
  • To drop into an interactive prompt after the script runs, use python -i yourscript.py.
  • If you still want double‑click behavior but keep the window open, run the script from a small batch file that invokes the command shell with the appropriate flag (for example, using cmd /k).

Pygame checklist:

  • Make sure the example actually initializes Pygame and runs a main loop that handles events (especially the QUIT event); otherwise the program will exit immediately.
  • While debugging, do not use .pyw (it hides the console and thus the error messages).
  • If an example crashes on startup, read the console traceback to see missing dependencies or SDL/driver errors.

Quick summary: run from the console or an IDE to read errors, ensure your Pygame code has a proper event loop, and use pausing tricks only for quick tests — not as your primary debugging method.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for magneto

I figured it out!

Member Avatar for scru

For others who might run into this problem, a simple solution would be to append the line

raw_input("Press ENTER to exit")

at the end of your code.

Member Avatar for scru

Agreed, because then if an exception occurs you can view it in the IDE, as opposed to my method where the window just closes...

Member Avatar for laseredd

To correct this problem you can add this to the end of your program:

_pause = raw_input("Press <enter> to continue...")

If you're like me and don't want to add this to all your programs, I have created a small python program that will automate the process and then ask you if you want to remove the code.

To use it put it in the same directory as your program and run it. Type in the filename of your program (exclude the .py extension, this will be automatically added) and the program will add the code, launch the program and then ask you if you want to remove the code.

This probably won't work with all programs and I'm not to sure if it'll run on Linux or Mac, though I have tried my best to make it as portable as possible.

from os import system
from os import remove
from shutil import copyfile

program = raw_input("Which program do you want to open? ") + ".py"
progtmp = program + ".tmp"

copyfile(program, progtmp) ##Backup original file

pause = open(program, "a")
pause.write("_pause = raw_input('Press <enter> to continue...')") 
pause.close()

system(program) ##Launch the program

restore = raw_input("Do you want to remove the pausing code from the program?(y\n) ")
if restore == "y":
    copyfile(progtmp, program)
    remove(progtmp)
else:
    pass
Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.