rendering from python - blender 2.5

i just started doing some python scripting to automate some tedious outputting for a project. its going really well, but just a little quirk that is driving me nuts, when i call the render command bpy.ops.render.render() performs the render and the image is saved to disk, but it does it all silently with zero visual feedback (doesn’t launch a render window or anything). i tried adding bpy.ops.render.view_show() and it doesn’t seem to help.

admittedly i’m still a little green with all this, so perhaps i’m calling it improperly?

Has anyone ever found a solution to this?

I’m running into exactly the same issue, and I have tried for days to find an answer to that question, but no luck.
print(bpy.context.scene.render.display_mode) gives me “AREA” as the output-option to display renderings in the image-editor, which is what I would want. It also works when pushing f12 or using the default renderbutton.

My homemade renderbutton however only works in “silent mode” so I have no way to observe the progress of the render apart from watching the console for my custom messages. “bpy.ops.render.view_show()” fails due to “invalid operator call”.