mmm...i'm not grasping this suggestion entirely.
or I'm doing something wrong(most probably the latter) 
I added self.show() at the end of my script to have __init__ start the gui
#!/usr/bin/python
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
class Test(QtGui.QWidget):
def __init__(self, parent = None):
QtGui.QWidget.__init__(self, parent)
#various window setting
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 250, 150)
self.setWindowTitle('Test')
self.setWindowIcon(QtGui.QIcon('C:/Users/amenard/Desktop/icon.png'))
#create ballon-style tooltip on window
self.setToolTip('This is a <b>QWidget</b> widget.\nTake a look at the <i>icon</i> in the upper left corner.')
QtGui.QToolTip.setFont(QtGui.QFont('OldEnglish', 10))#change the overall font on tooltip
#create a button to close down the gui
cancel = QtGui.QPushButton('Cancel', self)#button widget
cancel.setGeometry(10, 10, 60, 35)#place it
cancel.setToolTip('This <b>button</b> will close down the window.')
#use QtCore module to close down the window
self.connect(cancel, QtCore.SIGNAL('clicked()'), self, QtCore.SLOT('close()'))
#have __init__ initialize the gui
self.show()
and then I tried to pop it open with this
import pyQt_Basics_simpleGui_ma
pyQt_Basics_simpleGui_ma.Test()
which didnt work entirely, as I see the gui open and close in a fratcion of a second
now I called up the class by instancing it.
import pyQt_Basics_simpleGui_ma
aTest = pyQt_Basics_simpleGui_ma.Test()
now this works, but I think I should be able to call up the gui without instancing it?
that was your suggestion, wasn't it?