Hi Steve You wrote:
I would just like to point out that the ipython %paste magic very handily strips leading >, ... & + characters from the pasted block, (there is also some clever dedenting done).
[useful example, snipped]
Which is ideal. I personally find that many beginners get on a lot better in the iPython console than in the python one.
Thank you very much for this. I didn't know about this solution to the problem. Docs search for ipython brings up <quote> https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/interactive.html One alternative enhanced interactive interpreter that has been around for quite some time is IPython, which features tab completion, object exploration and advanced history management. It can also be thoroughly customized and embedded into other applications. Another similar enhanced interactive environment is bpython. </quote> I've now played a little with (both look nice):
https://www.bpython-interpreter.org https://repl.it/repls/LightcoralMoralDistributedcomputing
Perhaps beginners would benefit from something better than the default, but simpler than ipython. But I don't have any experience to support this view. There's related prior art in the well-regarded https://codewith.mu/en/about. (Steve, I'd welcome your comments on this.) So thank you for bringing iPython's nifty %paste trick to my (and the thread's) attention. -- Jonathan