[Edu-sig] editor for children

[Kirby Urner]

> My believed editor for children is Czech PSPad, that is also located to
> English. That is why I write about.
> There are many features in it and seems to be very stable even on our W98.
> 

Thanks for cueing me about PSPad.  I'm downloading it now.

An apparent drawback is no Linux version.  

I like that it explicitly saves with different line ending conventions (e.g.
Windows, Linux, Mac).

This looks to be a very capable, general purpose editor, and it's a great
thing that it's a free download (but is the source available? -- I don't
think so).

In this same category (free, general purpose) is Eclipse (vi/vim already
mentioned).

There's a Python plug-in for Eclipse that provides some call tips, i.e. a
kind of intellisense providing cues.

For example, if I type 

import sys
sys.
    ^

and then wait a second, I get a scroll panel listing all the sys module
options.  Clicking on any option gives me the docstring in another panel.

There's also some way to get an interactive Python shell going within the
editor.  I can't figure that out this morning.  I saw this at an OSCON demo.
http://www.python.org/moin/EclipsePythonIntegration is somewhat out of date
on this -- you'll see I inserted a comment alerting readers to these new
capabilities.

Eclipse is designed for workhorse use.  You learn as much as you need to
know to be productive.  It's appropriate for kids, provided it has been set
up properly and they're introduced to it in a logical manner.

A lot of Python programmers use editors based on the Scintilla engine
See:  http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html

The codeEditor in PythonCard (cross-platform, open source), is based on
Robin Dunn's wxPython, a wrapper for wxWidgets (C++ library).

Patrick O'Brian has developed similarly useful offerings in wx.  

All of these have namespace windows, allowing the same kind of module and
docstring browsing you find in Eclipse (Eclipse offers this only recently,
wxWorld has for a long time).  You also get an interactive shell in both
environments.

For my January course, I'm strongly considering PythonCard.  The only thing
stopping me is my own ignorance and no way to bill for the hours it'll take
me to overcome this (Saturday Academy doesn't pay for curriculum
development, only hours in the classroom).  I don't have much of a cushion
these days, to take the impact of just dinking around, learning stuff --
especially not with Xmas breathing down my neck.

With PythonCard, I'd have easy access to drawing surfaces, which I'll want
for the fractals, and perhaps even for the Povray (called externally, with
the results returned in a wxWindow).

If there's ever a way to integrate VPython inside of wxWidgets (I don't
think there is right now), then I dare say PyGeo would benefit by moving to
wxWidgets.  Arthur's Tk menus and controls could be re-rendered in a more
capable framework.  Plus he'd get the benefit of a more consistent look on
the different platforms (this would be especially noticeable on Mac OSX).

http://spe.pycs.net/ is another editor I'm tracking -- geared for the Mac
crowd especially.

For a long list of Python-compatible editors, check:
http://www.python.org/moin/PythonEditors -- PSPad is not mentioned, and
could be added (this is a Wiki, so if you register, you can do it).

Thanks again for PSPad, which is handsome, professional, capable.

Kirby