<span class="gmail_quote"></span><span class="q">On 12/7/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Kurt B. Kaiser</b> <<a href="mailto:kbk@shore.net" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kbk@shore.net
</a>> wrote:</span><div><div><span class="q" id="q_10fc62ff076ace83_2"><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>There are many Python IDEs and editors with a development policy of<br>adding lots of features. In fact, most of them do this, since it keeps<br>the development team amused and differentiates them from the<br>competition. Over time this leads to a very busy interface with
<br>complicated menus, rows of buttons, and multiple status and side bars.<br>Some even incorporate GUI editors.<br><br>IDLE is perhaps the sole representative of an alternative approach and<br>therefore occupies an ecological niche! It's a lot more powerful than
<br>it appears to be.<br><br>It would be nice if we had an enhancement to the Options dialog which<br>provided an extension configurator. Then we could easily add more<br>features for those who need them without cluttering the GUI. Also, IDLE
<br>extensions could be provided as third party contributions with a central<br>repository somewhere.<br><br>So the question is, what *essential* features are missing from IDLE?<br>What improvements in usability could be made to the ones we already have
<br>without making the interface noisy, confusing, or chewing up valuable<br>screen space? People often say they prefer other 'editors', but is there<br>really something missing from IDLE or are they just drawn to 'flash'?
<br><br>My top items:<br><br>Incremental search (in a text entry widget in the bottom status bar).<br><br>Display/modification of sys.argv, probably in the status bar, or maybe<br>in a separate status bar which would appear when activated.
<br><br>A solid way to copy code from the Shell to an edit window (smart<br>copy/paste doing tab conversion where necessary?).<br><br>A way to cut text in the shell without restarting it when it gets too<br>full (You lose the history when you restart the shell. Maybe save
<br>history across restarts?)<br><br>Any comments or votes on the above?</blockquote></span></div><div><br>A major feature I miss is a "Goto definition" function. I spend far too much time manually searching for function and class definitions when working with IDLE.
<br><br>- Tal<br>
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