Errol, > 1. Confusion between tabs and spaces > > I feel that IDLE should work only in tabs and not try converting from > tabs to spaces and back again. > ... > However a new line after an 'if' statement appears to add an extra > tab (- a nice feature) but as four spaces, not as a tab, even though > the default tab setting is 8 spaces. This behaviour appears to be > independent of the Toggle Tabs setting. > > This behaviour basically makes IDLE impossible to use as each line > will have a different tab arrangement.
I have witnessed the same thing. I believe the solution is that IDLE should accept Tabs or spaces, but hide this from the user. In other words, it would be great if IDLE would pretend 4 spaces was a Tab (meaning when you backspace over it, you need only backspace once, not four times). This problem is complicated with the fact that Python does have a strict restriction on what is used for indents -- it can be tabs, or spaces (and any number of spaces, at that). Also, I believe a bug exists that the setting for tab indentation size (the number of spaces a Tab represents) only takes effect on re-start, IIRC. > 2. Displaying non-printing (tabs, spaces and end-of-line) characters > > Is there some way to do this ? I have gone through all the settings > without success. I believe this is not possible. However a more knowledgeable person should answer this for you. > 3. Wordwrap > > How do I turn this on, to wrap at the window edge? Again, I believe this is not possible, but a more knowledgeable person should answer this for you. Please note that the style guides recommend that Python code not be wider than 79 characters, although I know this is very annoying in practice. Please read this section of the Style Guide for the suggestions and ways to deal with long lines properly: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html Maximum Line Length > 4. Code Context > > A great feature, but can it be synchronized with the cursor position > rather than the top of the page? Also could the window expand or > scroll to show all levels of the current loops, not limited to 3 > levels? Wow, this is a great feature. I was unaware of it until now. Yes, I agree on both points: It is unintuitive to be synchronized with the top of the page, instead of the cursor position. And, it would be great if it showed more than 3 levels when necessary. > 5. Class Browser > > Another great feature, but this would be more useful if it could be > docked in the edit window rather than floating free. In general, the window positions are erratic. It would be nice if they remembered their previous positions. > I look forward to any comments and/or assistance that can be offered. > > Best regards > > Errol Thanks for your comments. I recommend reading previous posts by Kurt Kaiser (in response to my posts) regarding providing bug reports and possible improvements. He has posted a lot of good information. Take care, -- Jason Doucette / Xona.com www.jasondoucette.com / www.xona.com _______________________________________________ IDLE-dev mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/idle-dev
