Re: [Visualpython-users] new files

[Bruce S. <bas...@un...>]

Arthur, you may be in a position to clear up something for me. Evidently
you, like many other users of Python, find it convenient/useful/natural to
do these little explorations in the shell rather than typing

import cmath
print dir(cmath)

into an edit window and hitting F5. Why is this? I feel much more
comfortable in an edit window, where the full history and context is clear
(including the import status), and where I can easily make modifications to
try a change after the first try.

Bruce Sherwood

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur" <ajs...@op...>
To: "Bruce Sherwood" <bas...@un...>; "vpusers"
<vis...@li...>
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Visualpython-users] new files


> Thinking about it though, beyond the "political" issues, IDLE is probably
a
> better solution than ScITE for a standalone environment.  I do think that
> both an interactive prompt, and an editing environment are necessary.
ScITE
> is only an editor.  I think of this in the context of documentation,
because
> I am actually more likely to do something like:
>
> Python 2.2.2 (#37, Nov 26 2002, 10:24:37) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
> Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> IDLE 0.8 -- press F1 for help
> >>> import cmath
> >>> dir(cmath)
> ['__doc__', '__name__', 'acos', 'acosh', 'asin', 'asinh', 'atan', 'atanh',
> 'cos', 'cosh', 'e', 'exp', 'log', 'log10', 'pi', 'sin', 'sinh', 'sqrt',
> 'tan', 'tanh']
>
> then I am to access the html docs, at least as a first step, in trying to
> get a handle on some specific area of Python.
>
> Of course there is always the cmd prompt, which isn't hideous on XP.  But
I
> do much prefer IDLE for interactive experimentation, and the like.
>
> Art