Pydoc is not working (Windows XP)

Question

Using Windows XP and Python 2.7 I tried to run "pydoc" through the terminal. unfortunately it doesn't work.

Since I'm not allowed to post a screenshot (Newbie). Here is what it says (white on black)

"C:\Python27>pydoc raw_input /"pydoc raw_input" is what I typed Der Befehl "pydoc" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder konnte nicht gefunden werden. /This shows up after I hit enter. It's German an it roughly translates to"The command "pydoc" is either spelled wrong or couldn't be found.

What am I doing wrong.

By the way, I just started to teach myself programming using Zed Shaws "Learn Python the Hard Way" and this is the first issue I really can't figure out using Google. I start to believe that it is Windows an not me... (beeing to broke to afford a Mac and to scared to learn Linux).

Answer 1

pydoc is actually a Python script (so, on Windows, you need to look for pydoc.py), and it's not added to the Windows %PATH% by default (so you need to give a full pathname).

Try running c:\Python27\Lib\pydoc.py from your command line.

Edit: For a graphical interface to Python's documentation, you might want to instead run c:\Python27\Tools\Scripts\pydocgui.pyw (from the command line or from Windows Explorer). This starts pydoc's web server on your local PC so you can access the documentation through your web browser.

Answer 2

The simplest way to do this would be to change to the Python27/Lib directory and run the command from there, like so:

C:\Documents and Settings\username>cd C:\Python27\Lib

C:\Python27\Lib>python pydoc.py raw_input
Help on built-in function raw_input in module __builtin__:

Answer 3

There's no pydoc command in Windows. You'll need to specify the full path to pydoc.py. For example to start the pydoc GUI use:

python c:\Python26\lib\pydoc.py -g

If you want to add the pydoc command, create a pydoc.bat file with the following line in it:

@python c:\Python26\lib\pydoc.py %*