[Pythonmac-SIG] love python, but Discouraged with Mac IDLE

[kevin parks]

I am very new to python and perhaps am speaking out of turn here, but please note that i love python, the python community and am extreemly grateful that the langauge even runs on a mac, but i have to say, IDLE is really unpleasant on the Mac. As far as i can tell there is no sytax coloring (looked and looked and looked..) and no pretty printing help no formatting tools, even more noteworthy, no line numbers! I thought that i was crazy, well ok, but i downloaded python onto a pc (yucky) and installed it just to see IDLE in action, and it was super sweet. Also i was used to using alpha to hack tcl and that was pretty sweet as well (people claim there is a python mode for that but i fail to see that as well). Can we look forward to basic nice-ities in macIdle or are these always going to be beyond us because of things that the OS forbids? I hate the PC, have no access to UNIX (god help me, my beloved NeXT is far far away) and am stuck on a mac for the time being ($), and in a twisted way occasionally like the mac for my other tasks (audio). I know that it is a lot of work and that many folks work hard to bring us mac python, but i really want to enjoy hacking with python more than i do and i find that IDLE and the interpreter (another topic altogether) is what keeps me from being productive and happy. The language is freaky awesome, the mac can be cool sometimes too, but the thing inbetween: IDLE is the discouraging part. I hope no one is angry at this post. It was meant to be constructive. Like when your wife, whom you love to no end, tries something with her hair that just isn't working....


best,

kevin parks
seoul, korea

cpsoct@lycos.com

PS. the mac-specific docs are no day at the beach either!





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