why is my spyder IDE no longer opening

Question

I just closed my spyder IDE on win7 64bit 64bit python2.7 after a long session.

during that last session, I had also installed a couple of new libraries via conda install. maybe that threw things off?

now when I try to start spyder again, the spyder splash screen appears briefly but then spyder doesn't open. if I try to start spyder from the command line, I get the following error:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\jlarsch>conda install spyder
Warning: could not import binstar_client (A 0.7-series setuptools cannot be inst
alled with distribute. Found one at c:\users\jlarsch\appdata\local\continuum\ana
conda\lib\site-packages\setuptools-20.7.0-py2.7.egg)Fetching package metadata: .
...
Solving package specifications: .........

# All requested packages already installed.
# packages in environment at C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda:
#
spyder                    2.3.9                    py27_0

C:\Users\jlarsch>spyder
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\Scripts\spyder-script.
py", line 2, in <module>
    start_app.main()
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyd
erlib\start_app.py", line 114, in main
    from spyderlib import spyder
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyd
erlib\spyder.py", line 137, in <module>
    from spyderlib.ipythonconfig import IPYTHON_QT_INSTALLED
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyd
erlib\ipythonconfig.py", line 24, in <module>
    required_version=IPYTHON_REQVER)
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyd
erlib\dependencies.py", line 70, in add
    installed_version)]
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyd
erlib\dependencies.py", line 32, in __init__
    self.installed_version = programs.get_module_version(modname)
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyd
erlib\utils\programs.py", line 238, in get_module_version
    mod = __import__(module_name)
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\IPyt
hon\__init__.py", line 48, in <module>
    from .terminal.embed import embed
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\IPyt
hon\terminal\embed.py", line 16, in <module>
    from IPython.core.interactiveshell import DummyMod
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\IPyt
hon\core\interactiveshell.py", line 31, in <module>
    from pickleshare import PickleShareDB
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pick
leshare.py", line 41, in <module>
    from path import path as Path
  File "C:\Users\jlarsch\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\path
.py", line 126, in <module>
    except pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound:
NameError: name 'pkg_resources' is not defined

seems related to this issue but I don't understand how I might be able to fix this on windows?

Answer 1

try this download setuptools from here and install.