Question

Whenever I try to use the python interpreter on windows,

C:\path>pythonw.exe cubes.py
<blank line>
C:\path>

happens.

using python.exe instead works, but every tutorial tells me to use pythonw.exe.

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

According to http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t752828-pythonw-exe.html, which I quickly verified myself:

pythonw.exe is the same as python.exe but it doesn’t open a console
window, and launches python in the background. This allows you to
easily run background programs or GUI programs in a nicer way (without
a dummy console window popping up).

This is precisely what you see. Don’t use pythonw.exe if you want an interactive interpreter.