[Idle-dev] What we need, and how we can help

[Guido van Rossum]

Jeremy wrote:
>       line((1,2),(3,4)   # error is here 
>       line((1,2),(3,4))  # but is reported on this line
> 
> Not sure what this example is supposed to show.  What is the error?
> Why are the two lines identical?

The lines aren't identical -- the first one is missing a close paren.
The fact that you missed this shows how important it is to have a
better diagnostic for this!

E.g. showing where the first open paren is that is missing a close
paren...

This so common, it's almost worth special-casing by hook or by crook!

> I believe Guido intends to use an unshared copy of Tcl/Tk for future
> Python releases as well.

Yes.

> The current Python install script is a Wise installer.  Again, I don't
> know much about how this works.  Hopefully, Guido will chime in here,
> too.

We use an old version of the WISE installer that can be used for free
by anyone who wants to create an installer for free Python software
(the friendly WISE people have told Mark Hammond this).  I don't put
it on the web to avoid misuse -- I'll mail it to you if you ask.  The
WISE installer script I use to create the installation is available as
part of the source distribution (or via CVS): PCbuild/python15.wse.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)