I agree that IDLE is quite usable once working properly which is pretty much never a problem with Windows distros but can be an issue when doing a from-scratch C-language compilation of Python with the Tk part added. Tk is after all a separate process in another language which Python controls or talks to, much as it talks to DB engines (SQL or no SQL). I emphasize in my courses that Python has no baked in native GUI, but that IDLE comes closest being both cross-platform and standard library.
I used IDLE for years but these days use a combination of Eclipse and PyCharm. I like PyCharm quite a lot and it's what I have on my local machine. One need not use all the bells and whistles on any of these. Then my students are using either a proprietary in-browser Python IDE (training wheels) or are remote controlling an Eclipse desktop on a distant server. I do that too, cutting and pasting code back and forth between PyCharm on my local platform, and Eclipse running somewhere else. IDLE, PyCharm, Eclipse... all good. If your goal is to not have to provide a lot of technical support and to standardize on something for the sake of curriculum materials, I think all of these are strong choices. In reality, some students become very interested in their options / freedoms and will end up choosing a different tool set no matter what we start them with. That's just the reality, and we don't really want to discourage it, so the curriculum itself should probably mention the arbitrary nature of any given ecosystem (stack) and suggest further exploration. Kirby On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 10:14 AM, roberto <robert...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why don't you try cloud.sagemath.com? or https://trinket.io/ > > They both let your students work at a distance and collaborate with you. > Hope this helps. > > On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 4:47 PM, Christian Mascher < > christian.masc...@gmx.de> wrote: > >> >> Hi Andre, >> >> >> I would really like some advice based on practical experience teaching >>> beginners. >>> >>> >> I personally would stick with Idle. There was a time, when it was >> problematic under MacOS because tkinter was missing there - but those days >> are over. >> >> As an all-platform, _already (battery-) included_ editor, Idle is simple >> but pretty good. There is not much you have to explain which concerns the >> ide. >> >> Most of the problems of beginners in Idle (and I always use idle in >> class, apart from reeborg) are not very idle-specific (indentation, copy >> and paste in console-mode, miximg tabs and spaces, saving, importing). >> >> You will have to explain the difference between programming at the prompt >> or in a file, but you would have to explain similar things in other ide's >> as well. >> >> If you want to keep it safe and simple, write programs with Idle only in >> files (File->New File, and run them with F5). Most technical problems arise >> when using the live-prompt (session-saving is useless). >> >> Some students used idle and pygame together some years ago with no >> problems. >> >> >> >> >>> 1. Use IDLE. Free, part of the standard distribution. I never used it >>> very much myself and I keep reading about how tricky it can be to set up >>> properly for beginners - mostly, I gathered, due to path problems on >>> Windows. There is a proposal to make it better ( >>> https://github.com/asweigart/idle-reimagined/wiki) but it is doubtful it >>> will be realized soon enough (or at all) to make it worthwhile waiting >>> for >>> it. >>> >>> >> I haven't encountered path problems with idle recently (about since the >> introduction of Windows XP and python msi-installers ...) >> >> When Pygame is installed Python has got to find it, but that shouldn't be >> a concern of Idle. >> >> Having to install only two things (check for the python dependency of the >> pygame-version first!) would be my choice. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Christian >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu-sig mailing list >> Edu-sig@python.org >> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig >> > > > > -- > Roberto > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > >
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