This is a great discussion - I'm very excited about this project!

On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 4:24 PM, Al Sweigart <al@inventwithpython.com> wrote:

I'd move a REPL from the "nice to have" to the "mandatory" list. The interactive shell is really nice when the student just has to learn what a new function or method does.

Agree 100%. This is where I always start my students doing "Hello World" and turtle graphics. They get instant results without any need for the save/run/edit routine.

The most common confusions students have told me about with IDLE are:

1) Mixing up the interactive shell and file editor windows.

Multiple windows (and the "Python Shell" window always popping up on top) is a constant source of confusion. Also, when they move on to using the editor and running programs (don't get me started on "Run Module"), the shell window is not used for typing anymore, but shows output and error messages. This is so unwieldy and takes up far too much class time to get a handle on.

+1 for syntax highlighting. Don't discount how colorful text improves the coolness of coding for students. Even if they change the colors to look like a garish MySpace page.

Definitely +1. It also helps with a very common early problem: closing quotes. Colored strings are a great bit of feedback that you quoted everything correctly.

Also, a visual indicator of unclosed parentheses would be huge - I see many students have a problem with this, especially when they start nesting them. Currently, if you forget to close parens, IDLE highlights the *next* statement and calls it a syntax error. Kids wind up staring at that red highlight unable to see what's wrong.

Regards,
Chris

Chris Bradfield

Founder, KidsCanCode

http://kidscancode.org/

818-794-0522