[Idle-dev] IDLE interpreter window

[Albert Brandl]

Hi!

> hehe - Id love to take the credit, but I stole them from IDLE - isnt it
> Alt-N and Alt-P or something?

Thanks for the advice. But the presence of a work-around for accessing
the history does not hide the fact that the *Python Shell* looks like
a shell but does not behave like one. IMHO it should try to resemble
the usual shell behaviour as closely as possible (Gerrit's idea of
introducing "modes" points to this direction). I think that everyone who
uses shells expects a certain behaviour when using the *Python Shell*.
And I _don't_ think many people expect the cursor to go up one line when
pressing the Up-Arrow ;-)

Another example: It's possible to remove the ">>>" by using the backspace
key. Ever done that at a bash / csh / tcsh prompt? ;-) When it first
happened to me, I entered the missing ">" in order to re-establish the
"correct" look of the window. I was _quite_ astonished to get a syntax
error when executing the next command!

I think the semantics of the arrow keys and backspace are essential if
the *Python Shell* window is to be widely accepted.

     Best regards,

          Albert