Why is neither the executable nor its launcher script found despite being added to PATH

Question

I followed the instruction to install pygmentize in order to use syntax highlight in Latex environment, however TexMaker always produces an error says pygmentize is not found. I then tested to run the .cmd file itself using command prompt and the system says:

C:\Python27\Scripts>pygmentize.cmd
C:\Python27\python.exe: can't open file 'C:\Python27\Scripts\pygmentize': [Errno
 2] No such file or directory

I added path variable for both directories: C:\Python27 and C:\Python27\Scripts. Within C:\Python27\Scripts, there are two files:

1. pygmentize.exe
2. pygmentize.cmd

Where the content of pygmentize.cmd is as follows:

@echo off
set PYTHONPATH=C:\Python27
%PYTHONPATH%\python.exe %PYTHONPATH%\Scripts\pygmentize %*

The original instruction doesn't contain a \ after %PYTHONPATH%, I added because the I realize the error message is kinda odd when it says C:\Python27Scripts\python.exe. So my question is, why doesn't the Tex system recognize the executable pygmentize? Following an instruction from a SO from https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/23458/how-to-install-syntax-highlight-package-minted-on-windows-7, I added a line:

\newcommand\TestAppExists[3]{#2}

in my .tex file and it worked only under Ubuntu. So what's the purpose of the .cmd file in this case?

Answer 1

cmd.exe will prefer .exe to .cmd when choosing which pygmentize to execute, all else begin equal. python.exe will perform no magic at all and will not know what to make of C:\Python27\Scripts\pygmentize unless a file with that exact name exists.