Re: [Visualpython-users] OFSET/ Freeduc - distribution of VPython?

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

Good news on the idlefork front: The latest release of idlefork is in 
very good shape. Kurt Kaiser managed to fix the serious bugs. He has 
also fixed in CVS some minor problems that showed up in the beta 
release. I've used the new idlefork extensively, and I encourage people 
to try it by downloading the installer available at

	http://sourceforge.net/projects/idlefork

I think it is very likely that this WILL replace the old IDLE in the 
final release of Python 2.3, especially because Guido has been keeping a 
close watch on it and even contributed a recent patch himself. If it 
does become the standard distributed IDLE, starting with Python 2.3 we 
will retire Idle_VPython, and it will no longer be a part of the VPython 
package.

The new idlefork has all of the features and capabilities of 
Idle_VPython plus many excellent new features. The most obvious 
difference you'll see is that there is only one output window, no matter 
how many program files you have open, and this output window is actually 
the Python shell, so you can investigate the present values of variables 
in your program, etc. There is an excellent facility for configuring the 
editor (change font size etc.), and changes take effect immediately. You 
can specify Windows keyboard shortcuts on a Linux or Mac machine (or 
Linux shortcuts on Windows or Mac, etc.). This is a great convenience if 
you do most of your work on one platform but occasionally run on a 
different platform.

The default behavior in some respects is not the same as Idle_VPython. 
If you want the same behavior as Idle_VPython, you need to go to 
Configure IDLE on the Options menu, choose the General tab, and set At 
Startup to "Open Edit Window" (default is to open a Python shell), and 
set At Start of Run (F5) to "No Prompt" (the default is to ask you 
whether to save each time you run, unless you remember to save before 
running).

Bruce Sherwood

Jonathan Brandmeyer wrote:

> Other notes:
> You mentioned that the idle/idlefork issue will be moot since the "main"
> fork of idle should be merged into Python 2.3.  Don't count your
> chickens until they hatch.  That is the plan, but there remain some
> severe bugs to work out first.  Taking the worst case (idlefork doesn't
> make it), make sure that Idle for VPython doesn't conflict with the main
> Idle.  We prevent this by keeping idle_VPython under the site-packages
> directory, and installing a shell script named "vpython" in the PATH
> that runs our version of idle.
> 
> Of course, I would love to see the new idlefork make it.  That last bit
> was "just in case".