[Idle-dev] idle -h etc

[Kurt B. Kaiser]

"Alin Moldoveanu" <alin.moldoveanu at rdslink.ro> writes:

> "idle -h" does not work in my Python installation (2.4 on Windows).

<open a command window>

cd c:\Python24\Lib\idlelib
idle.py -h

If you just call <idle -h> it is run by pythonw.exe which doesn't
display the command window which receives the output.

> Anyway, I had a look at the source code, there was no option for starting
> the editor at a certain line in a file.

Never claimed there was.

> But the source code it's quite clear and easy to change to do
> whatever I want at startup.

That's what I expected you to do :-)

> Btw, IDLE has the same "free" license as Python, right ?!

Right.  Same license.  Enjoy.

> And, regarding debugging facilities in IDLE. I just found the Python
> language and I intend to use it in a big project. I think it's a
> great language with powerful libraries. In contrast, the debugger for
> the standard distributed editor (IDLE) is too simplistic and not even
> the easies to use.  I think improving IDLE (mostly the debugger) will
> help a lot many developers.

Possibly so.  But if you just discovered Python you may come to feel
that debuggers aren't so useful for 'pure' Python code as they are
for, say, C code.  Print statements work very well and are usually
actually faster than mucking around in the debugger.  The class
browser is also helpful.

The one addition to the debugger I would like is the ability to
execute an arbitrary Python statement in any stack frame at a
breakpoint.  If you really get stuck you can use the Python pdb
debugger (outside of IDLE).  I agree that's not very elegant.

What other capability do you feel is missing?

-- 
KBK