Eli Bendersky <eliben <at> gmail.com> writes: > Oh, and another thing. If a Windows user wants a good Python shell, > IDLE should be his last choice. There's Spyder, there's IPython, > there's probably a bunch of others I'm not aware of.This is for IDLE > as a shell. The same can be said for IDLE as an editor.This is > precisely my main gripe with IDLE: it does a lot of things, but > neither of them it does well.
Actually, there are surprisingly little competition to IDLE as a shell! IDLE has mostly working multi-line editing and history, while most "sophisticated" environments (including Spyder) work line-by-line, which makes defining a function (let alone a class) in the shell prohibitively painful. The only other shells I could recommend to a beginner are: 1. IPython, which of course does multi-line editing superbly. Its non-standard extensions are a distraction and it's too far into power-user end of the spectrum to ever become a fits-all recommendation. The notebook is enough of a win to tip the scales for some educators, but the jury is still out if that's a smooth beginner experience. 2. Dreampie, designed by an ex-IDLE-contributor for the sole purpose of being a better shell than IDLE. However, lack of an editor makes it less practical as an introductory tool. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
