[Edu-sig] Python Briefing for Faculty

[Markus Gritsch]

> If so, this seriously detracts from some of the benefits associated
> with IDLE, and even with interactive Python in a DOS box.  You don't
> really have an environment.  Nothing persists except disk files.
> You can't define A = Matrix(...) and then refer to it 10 minutes
> later, after doing a bunch of other stuff, maybe passing it as an
> argument to something imported from another module.  There's no
> real conversation.

Everything you mentioned is totally correct.  SciTE is an general Editor,
but has no interactive window built in.  I you enjoy interactive sessions,
IDLE is definitely the tool to use.  As you mentioned, It depends on your
habbits.  I don't use Python as an advanced calculator, and defining more
complicated stuff (loops, conditions) on the commandline is awkward.
Anyway, even when experimenting with features I write the code in SciTE and
execute it.  Since startup-time of the interpreter is neglible this is no
problem, although there is no persistency (as you also mentioned).

As already mentioned, it depends on your habbits.

Regards, Markus