[Edu-sig] IDLE wish (was Edu-sig Digest, Vol 31, Issue 16)

[ajsiegel at optonline.net]

----- Original Message -----
From: Dethe Elza <delza at livingcode.org>

> 
> python -c "import urllib; urllib.main()" \
> http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py \
> | python - -U setuptools

My point exactly - for the audience that I am focusing on and that with which  many
on edu-sig are concerned.

> 
> > My point about IDLE not running setup.py is and was exactly to 
> this issue.  I still wish
> > I could get some substantive reaction,  I think it important.
> 
> I missed the point about IDLE not running setup.py, but I can guess
> that running setup.py inside another process could confuse it when it
> tries to do dependency analysis to see which files to include.  

It's much more fundamental than that. 

How does one run any script from IDLE that requires a parameter?

The fact that there isn't a straightforward, obvious GUI based way to do so is the
issue.  A setup.py script requires a parameter - "install".  

We are back to the command line, and new territory for many, before we have
had the oppurtunity to influence them in the direction that ideally, it should not be.

One might accept that the absence of a "run with parameter" menu item is a vote 
for minimalism.  I recently voted for minimalism myself, someplace ;).

To me, the concern of getting folks access to libraries and applications in a manner
not so far outside their normal experience overrides any appreciation of IDLE's 
minimalism in this respect 

No other battery included is up to the job, and I suspect that this is a small amendment to
the IDLE codebase.

And directing them to IDLE to do an install is a natural way of introducing IDLE, and the
concept of a programmers' editor, period.

Art