Concerning VPython and IDLE:
At the same time that he created the Visual module, which provides
remarkably easy 3D animated graphics for Python (Visual + Python =
VPython), David Scherer made major changes to IDLE, including:
executes scripts in a separate process for stability
excludes system modules from tracebacks
usability changes, including reorganized menus
autosave on every run, with infinite un-do
scrolling output has a header marking the start of each run
This has turned out to be an ideal environment for novices (as measured by
use by a large number of physics students), and is also an excellent rapid
edit-run environment for experts.
Alas, there is no active work on this at present, because Scherer is not
currently in a situation where he can spend time on this, and we have no
one else in the project currently capable of pushing this forward.
It is certainly the case that Scherer's version of IDLE is an exceptionally
promising candidate to become the "official" IDLE, but unfortunately we are
not able to lead the charge right now.
Bruce Sherwood
P.S. We have just released VPython for Python 2.1 on Windows:
http://cil.andrew.cmu.edu/projects/visual
This new release installs Scherer's IDLE in Tools/idle_VPython, leaving the
standard IDLE in place. Desktop and start-menu icons are added that access
the VPython version of IDLE.
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