First Timer

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/11/2010 7:03 PM, Mensanator wrote:
> On May 11, 4:37 pm, Terry Reedy<tjre... at udel.edu>  wrote:
>
>> In the command line interpreter, you should be able to hit up
>> arrow and have the line above copied to the current entry line for
>> correction. In IDLE, this does not yet work,
>
> It doesn't have to. Simply place the cursor on the line you originally
> entered and hit<enter>.
>
>> so copy and paste or retype.
>
> The line will be repeated as a new line which you can edit
> and make corrections.

Thank you for the information. I obviously have never seen that written 
anywhere and never thought to try it. It will save me time.

>> For anything too complicated for either of those (more than one line), I
>> use (and reuse) a temporary edit file in an edit window. Just make sure
>> the file is named<something>.py rather than just<something>. You save
>> and run the file with F5. If there is a syntax error, IDLE will say so
>> and reopen the cursor window with the cursor at (or after) the location
>> of the error. Fix and hit F5 again. Very fast.
>
> Sounds like you're making a mountain out of a molehill. You deserve
> a medal if you've been using IDLE without knowing how to edit.

Huh? I was explaining, perhaps clumbsily, how to easily edit, run, 
re-edit, and re-run multiple statements, in an editor window meant for 
that job, which cannot so easily be done in the shell, if at all.

Unlike the raw interpreter window, IDLE does not allow pasting of 
multiple statements in its simulated shell (well it does, but it ignores 
any after the first). So using an editor window in that case also is 
necessary.

Terry Jan Reedy