title: Python newbie: pip install and syntax problems
body: <p>New to Python here. I am running Python 2.7.7 x86 and Windows 7. I am trying to install the <code>requests</code> module.  I've tried:</p>
  
  <pre><code>pip install requests
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in the Python shell and in the Windows command line (cmd) (I saw <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16314589/python-newbie-pip-invalid-syntax-error">this question</a>, which suggested using cmd), and I keep getting the same error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SyntaxError: invalid syntax
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to check if pip even installed correctly by running:</p>
  
  <pre><code>installed_packages = pip.get_installed_distributions()
  installed_packages_list = sorted(["%s==%s" % (i.key, i.version) for i in installed_packages])
  print installed_packages_list
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Which I got from <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/739993/how-can-i-get-a-list-of-locally-installed-python-modules">this question</a>. I got <code>[]</code> as the output. I'm interpreting this to mean that pip wasn't successfully installed. I tried reinstalling <code>pip</code> by running <code>get-pip.py</code>, and got the output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Requirement already up-to-date: pip in c:\python27\lib\site-packages
  Cleaning up...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Which I'm interpreting as Python telling me pip was installed. I'm really confused now... how do I make sure pip is correctly installed, and then install the requests module? Any help would be appreciated. </p>