Pythonwin & Python 2.1.1

I'm new to python. I heard about python through the channel tech tv. I started playing around with a little scripting with mirc irc client but once I found out about dirc irc client which supported python scripting I switched but I noticed they required active state python 2.1.1. What is the difference between active pythonwin and the normal python 2.1.1 you can download from URL

I'm planning on building me a new pc and I'm going to run windows 2000 professional. Which one of those applications would be better for me?

I have also noticed another thing about pythonwin. I made a progress bar in the regular python and when i ran it. There was no problem it even gave the message at the end requesting if I want to exit out completely. But when tried to run it in pythonwin it froze just about for some reason and didn't even give me the ending message. Why is that? Does anyone know?

Secondly this is just an idea of mines I would like to try. I have noticed that there aren't any really stable irc clients for windows that can support python scripting. Dirc is a good client but it has alot of bugs. And it appears that they aren't doing anything to help the users of their client.

If there are any good programmers out there that would like to contribute to this please let me know what your views are on all this.

Here is a link I found on ActiveState discussing the differences

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Do...tivePython/More

E.