[Tutor] Re: [Edu-sig] RE: [Idle-dev] IDLE's save-before-run r equirement

[Guido van Rossum]

> > What would switching over to using Scintilla accomplish that 
> > sticking with IDLE and continuing it's development wouldn't?
> 
> In a word "Reuse". That means one editor to maintain for most 
> of the Python IDEs. Add a feature to Scintilla and its pretty 
> trivial for all the IDEs to pick up the new feature without 
> having to reimplemnent it from scratch. Effort gets concentrated 
> on the value add bits rather than the nitty gritty of text editing.

But IDLE has a bunch of requirements that I don't think Scintilla can
provide.  IDLE has really two editing modes: the regular module/file
editor, and the "Python Shell".  IDLE's most redeeming feature, IMO,
is the Python Shell.  Compare editing an interactive session in
PythonWin's console window with IDLE's Python Shell.  IMO again, IDLE
is infinitely better, because it uses the exact same editing features
as the module/file editor, meaning you get proper syntax coloring,
automatic indentation, call tips, magic expansion; and on top of that
you get per-line syntax checking, whole-command editing, and history
recall.  In PythonWin's much more primitive console, it's very easy to
mess up the input or the output or confuse the auto-indenter.

(I'm an instant gratification person, so Python's interactive mode is
very important to me.)

I could be wrong about Scintilla not supporting this, but if it did,
why would PythonWin not use it for *its* console?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)