On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 5:01 AM Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5 July 2015 at 19:26, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:
Basically agreeing with what's been said already: IPython is an application that has Python (and some other things) as a dependency. So is IDLE. Python itself should ideally not be bundled with any applications -- it's a historical accident that IDLE is in the stdlib. Of course there should be a basic command prompt, but I think that the existing one based on GNU readline is fine for that purpose.
This does raise an interesting question though: should we perhaps update the "getting & installing" parts of https://docs.python.org/3/using/index.html to cover more of the available options?
I think we should. The only reason anyone uses IDLE is that they found it as one of the included batteries (sometimes referred to by tutorials) and misinterpret that to think that it is good. It works, but it is mostly no frills with some annoying limitations (see the bug tracker). I doubt you'll find any core developers using IDLE to get work done. [this is where someone will pipe up and respond "hey!"]
For users interested in Python for research and data analysis, for example, the SciPy page on installing Python would likely be a better starting point than our upstream guide: http://www.scipy.org/install.html
Similarly, someone looking for a more sophisticated IDE than IDLE would do well to explore PyCharm, Komodo, Wingware, Visual Studio Community Edition, or one of the other options listed at https://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments
It may also be worth our while to update https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html and/or https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/interpreter.html to include a cross-reference to the usage guide for more detailed installation instructions (it took me a moment to remember where the platform specific installation guides were myself, so it wouldn't surprise me if someone reading the tutorial with no other context also had trouble finding them).
+1 -gps