Does it really have to run in a browser?

When I read your requirements, that students be able to run on a public computer that they do not own, yet keep their files from one session to another, I thought maybe running Python off of a USB stick, and saving their programs back onto that USB stick, would meet your requirements. It would have the advantage of not locking your students into a particular online service nor requiring Internet service to function. Yet you could write programs that access web services, install packages from PyPI, etc.

At first I was going to point you to Portable Python: http://portablepython.com/

But it has been years since I used it. Going to their website just now, I found it it now says:

"Portable Python is not being developed anymore. At the moment there are several better and more up-to-date alternatives"

There are links to other alternatives of complete Python distributions that can run off of a USB stick, none of which I have tried personally.

Just something to consider.

David H

On Monday, October 2, 2017 1:58pm, "Catherine Devlin" <catherine.devlin@gmail.com> said:

Hi, educators,

I'm thinking of teaching classes at our public library for folks who may or may not own their own computers. To that end, I'm trying to figure out the best way to provide them a hosted Python environment.

The platform of my dreams would

- Let them write and keep their scripts long-term

- Allow installation of packages from PyPI

- Not restrict outgoing web traffic - for instance, consuming web APIs is great for student projects, but many online environments restrict that use

I don't know what's the closest to my dreams, but if anybody has relevant experience, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks!

- Catherine
http://catherinedevlin.blogspot.com