decent interactive python shell on MS Windows?

[Tim Golden]

james.kirin39 at gmail.com wrote:
> Is there an interactive Python shell on Windows that supports:
> 
> - easy copy-pasting to/from an editor? (as opposed to the cumbersome
> "mark", "copy" and then "paste" sequence that any terminal on Windows
> seems forced to adopt)
> 
> - readline-like command history (up/down for previous/next command,
> Ctr-R for searching, etc) ?


Yes. The Windows command shell does all these
things. To do use mouse selecting and right-click
pasting, go to the System Menu on your console and select
Properties > Options > Quick Edit Mode. You can then
use the mouse to select an area (as though on notepad)
and <Enter> to select. Likewise, already-selected text
can be right-click pasted straight in. I use this whenever
I'm posting code-samples to this list: I work them up in
a console, select-copy them out, paste them into an email,
then select-copy them back and paste into a new console
to make sure I haven't made any assumptions.

Check out the use of up/down arrows as usual, plus
F7 for history and F8 for history-completion.

It's not everyone's cup of tea but I've been using
it happily for years.

TJG