On 12/7/06, Kurt B. Kaiser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
There are many Python IDEs and editors with a development policy of adding lots of features. In fact, most of them do this, since it keeps the development team amused and differentiates them from the competition. Over time this leads to a very busy interface with complicated menus, rows of buttons, and multiple status and side bars. Some even incorporate GUI editors. IDLE is perhaps the sole representative of an alternative approach and therefore occupies an ecological niche! It's a lot more powerful than it appears to be. It would be nice if we had an enhancement to the Options dialog which provided an extension configurator. Then we could easily add more features for those who need them without cluttering the GUI. Also, IDLE extensions could be provided as third party contributions with a central repository somewhere. So the question is, what *essential* features are missing from IDLE? What improvements in usability could be made to the ones we already have without making the interface noisy, confusing, or chewing up valuable screen space? People often say they prefer other 'editors', but is there really something missing from IDLE or are they just drawn to 'flash'? My top items: Incremental search (in a text entry widget in the bottom status bar). Display/modification of sys.argv, probably in the status bar, or maybe in a separate status bar which would appear when activated. A solid way to copy code from the Shell to an edit window (smart copy/paste doing tab conversion where necessary?). A way to cut text in the shell without restarting it when it gets too full (You lose the history when you restart the shell. Maybe save history across restarts?) Any comments or votes on the above?
A major feature I miss is a "Goto definition" function. I spend far too much time manually searching for function and class definitions when working with IDLE. - Tal
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