Alexander Belopolsky <belopol...@users.sourceforge.net> added the comment:
On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:50 AM, Mark Lawrence <rep...@bugs.python.org> wrote: .. > 2) Python is not responsible for dotting every i and crossing every t for a > computer novice. Yes, but it is not responsible for teaching a novice more than one way to exit the interpreter right off the bat. Note that the Ctrl-D/Ctrl-Z recommendation has a long history from the time when there was no exit/quit object defined in the default site.py and the alternative to the magic key-press was an unwieldy raise SystemExit. Note the following bug report from IDLEfork project: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=109579&aid=693333&group_id=9579 Apparently, some IDEs may want to rebind Ctrl-Z form EOF to (in this case) undo action. This is quite reasonable, but it makes the exit hint misleading. There are many reasons outside of python control for EOF to be bound to the keys other than Ctrl-Z/D. The current logic in site.py that makes a choice based on the filepath separator character is quite fragile: if os.sep == ':': eof = 'Cmd-Q' elif os.sep == '\\': eof = 'Ctrl-Z plus Return' else: eof = 'Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF)' > What would the novice make of my HP keyboard which doesn't have keys marked > RETURN or BS, > they both have symbols. There is very little you can do at the command prompt without knowing where your enter key is. In fact, you will not even see the hint in question if you don't press enter after typing exit. On the other hand, you can get quite far without using control key and if it is marked "control" or a national equivalent on your keyboard, you may not know the ctrl abbreviation for quite some time. Note that my last alternative, "Use exit() to exit" or "Enter exit() to exit" does not require knowing how the enter key is called. The user just need to know the means of entering commands and he or she must know this before seeing the exit hint anyways. > There isn't an ANY key on the keyboard either! :) Right. And computer industry would save loads of money in support calls if they instructed users to press the space bar instead. :-) ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue9362> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com