[Python-ideas] Should iPython Notebook replace Idle

[Nick Coghlan]

On 4 July 2015 at 18:56, Todd <toddrjen at gmail.com> wrote:
> That being said, one thing that IPython and other shells have shown is that
> it is possible to make a much more powerful python shell. So I don't think
> it is out of the realm of possibility to take a hard look at the current
> python shell and see where and how it can be made more useful.  The IPython
> shell is one of many places we could look for ideas.

Software Carpentry already recommend the IPython Notebook to research
scientists and data analysts learning Python (understandably so, since
IPython Notebook is built by and for research scientists and data
analysts).

The needs for programming education are different, and the Raspberry
Pi Foundation are starting looking at the available options in that
space (including asking the question of whether or not there should be
"Python for Education" edition that bundles additional third party
libraries that don't make sense to include in the default
installation.

There's certainly scope for improving IDLE itself (within the
constraints of "no dependencies outside the standard library"), but
part of that includes refactoring IDLE to make it easier to work on
and test. idle-dev is the appropriate list to find out more about the
options there.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia