[Idle-dev] IDLE's save-before-run requirement

[Mats Wichmann]

At 05:10 PM 6/18/2001 -0700, Wesley Chun wrote:
 >the subject of this message is basically to get some feedback on
 >having to save a script within IDLE before running it.  when i'm
 >making a good number of small changes to my file, doing separate
 >sets of keystrokes started to get old, so i hacked together a
 >small patch that allows you to "save-n-run."
 >
 >i thought i'd get Guido's opinion b4submitting a PEP.  he suggested
 >i also get some more comments from here.  below is basically what i
 >proposed and his response.
 >
 >please direct any comments to me (and/or the group).  thanks!


As Guido knows, I'm certainly interested in IDLE evolving,
because I find it a very handy learning tool - not just
for me; like Wesley, I try to teach some Python classes
from time to time.  There may be "better" IDEs but I'm
not convinced I've seen one yet (for Python).  And in my
particular situation, it HAS to be cross-platform, I'm
not going to fuss with two different IDEs in a classroom
situation (students get to choose Win2k or Linux).

But I suspect most "serious programmers" don't really see
IDLE as being a "serious IDE" - at least I gather this
impression from comments on c.l.p, esp. from folks who come
from other (inferior?) languages where an IDE is essential to
maintaining any sanity, so they've evolved into quite sophisticated
tools. So I don't know if there'd be a whole lot of overall
enthusiam for doing a lot to IDLE.


Guido writes:

 >I have working code
 > that runs the program in a subprocess, but there's a security
 > issue that makes me hesitant to check it in...

Maybe we can at least hash this one out here and come up
with a workable solution.  I've had my eye on this since
I first heard about it, as a possible way to make IDLE
play with Jython - since the same process would not be
running the IDE/editor/etc. AND running the code you
develop, the subprocess could actually be Jython instead
of CPython.  Maybe. I hope. The description I got from
Guido didn't lead me to a brilliant solution to the
security concern, unfortunately.


Mats