[Edu-sig] Code Examples using IDLE

[Kirby Urner]

Greetings Fredrik --

No need to respond to this; I know you're super-busy.

Just wanted to mention that we IDLE users like to tweak and
reload modules quite a bit, including your Standard Library 
examples.

You show how using __import__ directly gets around the fact
you use hyphens in your module file names.  However, your 
reload(hello) example doesn't show how to reload with hyphenated 
modules -- which for IDLE users is the easiest way to force 
re-evaluation of tweaked code.

So for example when I first __import__("socket-example-1"), 
it executes and gives a server time.  If I open this module in
IDLE and change the server name, then I'd like to reload 
and have it execute a second time.  I floundered around for
awhile and then came up with a way to do it.

My solution is to go:

  >>> v = __import__("socket-example-1")
  host is:  www.python.org
  server time is Fri Sep 29 09:27:39 2000
  local clock is 4 seconds off

  [change host in source code -- module open in window]

  >>> reload(v)
  host is:  clock.sgi.com
  server time is Fri Sep 29 09:41:57 2000
  local clock is 2 seconds off
  <module 'socket-example-1' from 'G:\PYTHON20\lundh\socket-example-1.py'>

  [change host in source code -- module open in window]

  >>> reload(v)
  host is:  ntp-cup.external.hp.com
  server time is Fri Sep 29 09:43:08 2000
  local clock is 2 seconds off
  <module 'socket-example-1' from 'G:\PYTHON20\lundh\socket-example-1.py'>

I'm using some of the public access time servers listed on:
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/clock1.htm

Perhaps in some future draft of your excellent book, you could 
throw in a few words for the "IDLE community" (that makes it 
sound like we're lazy, which I guess in some sense is true).

Kirby

PS:  I notice www.pythonlabs.com is not as friendly to testers:

  >>> reload(v)
  Traceback (innermost last):
    File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in ?
      reload(v)
    File "G:\PYTHON20\lundh\socket-example-1.py", line 13, in ?
      s.connect((HOST, PORT))
    File "<string>", line 1, in connect
  error: (10060, 'Operation timed out')

Won't even give me the time of day :-(

PPS:  thanks again for sending source code examples.  I'm anticipating
hours of fun and games.