Passing command line argument to program from within IDLE?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:28:17 -0500, Steve Holden wrote:

> Terry Reedy wrote:
>> On 2/4/2010 3:55 PM, Alan Biddle wrote:
>>> Just finishing my first Python (2.6 on Win XP)  program, which is
>>> working fine.  My "Duh?" question is about how to run it from within
>>> IDLE and pass it command line arguments.  No problem using sys.argv
>>> from a Windows command line, but I have missed how you can do that
>>> from within IDLE, which complicates development and debugging.
>> 
>> I presume you mean edit, F5-run, see result in shell window. Set
>> sys.argv in test function or __name__=='__main__' In 3.1 idle shell:
>> 
>>>>> import sys
>>>>> sys.argv
>> ['']
>>>>> sys.argv = ['abc','dev']
>>>>> sys.argv
>> ['abc', 'dev']
>> 
>> I did not know it was writable, either, until I tried it.
>> 
> As a solution, however, that sucks, wouldn't you agree?

[scratches head]

Do you mean setting sys.argv as a solution sucks? No, I don't, I think it 
is grand. If sys.argv was unmodifiable, *that* would suck.

Or do you mean that trying it as a solution to the problem of answering 
the OP's question sucks? Well, no, experimentation is good for answering 
these sorts of questions, and I can't assume that the documentation will 
cover every imaginable use-case, or that users will find it. In the 
absence of any documentation stating otherwise, I would have assumed that 
sys.argv was an ordinary list which you can modify at will, but having 
been caught out on faulty assumptions before, I would try it and see 
before commenting publicly.


-- 
Steven