[Idle-dev] [Python-Dev] A Friendly IDLE

[Alan Gauld]

On 10/04/14 12:15, Terry Reedy wrote:

> I agree: if shell window is saved as is, as logfile, as at present, the
> default should be .txt. #21140 is about changing default for Output
> Window; same method will work shell. Issue above is really about adding
> a second save option.

A long long time ago I used to use the VAX VMS debugger and one
of its greatest features was that you could save an interactive
session (as text) and then rerun it. the interpreter was smart
enough to ignore the DBG> prompts and the output lines(I think
they had a prefix too???).

This made long debugging sessions  easy to save and resume by
just rerunning the old session - which typically could take
maybe 2 minutes to rerun an entire 4 hour debug session.
You could also build test scripts very easily by running
a debug session then editing out (or copying and modifying)
the bits you didn't need (or needed).

Now, if Python (or any other IDE) could do that it would
be fantastic, Especially when working with Tkinter where
you often lose the object references when a program run ends
and have to restart from scratch each time. To rerun the
whole session up to some point would be great.

I've no idea what it would take to tweak the IDLE
interpreter/front-end to achieve that but I'd love if it
were so.

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos