IDLEfork README =============== IDLEfork is an official experimental fork of Python's Integrated DeveLopment Environment IDLE. Worthwhile and successful changes and additions will go back into the Python distribution's IDLE at some later stage. There is no spanish inquisition. As David Scherer aptly put it in the original IDLE fork README (below), "It is alpha software and might be unstable. If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces." One of the aims of IDLEfork now is for it to be able to be uncompressed into its own directory and run from there, that way you can play with (or hack on) IDLEfork without any further installation, and entirely separately from your stable python IDLE distribution. If you find bugs or undesired behaviour please code nifty patches and submit them to the IDLEfork SourceForge patch manager, 8^) or let us know about it in one of the appropriate fora. See the IDLEfork home page at http://idlefork.sourceforge.net for details on the various ways to give input to or contact the project. Please see the files NEWS.txt and ChangeLog for more up to date information on changes in this release of IDLEfork. Thanks for trying IDLEfork, Stephen M. Gava. README from IDLE fork 0.7.1 : ============================= EXPERIMENTAL LOADER IDLE 2000-05-29 ----------------------------------- David Scherer This is a modification of the CVS version of IDLE 0.5, updated as of 2000-03-09. It is alpha software and might be unstable. If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces. If you have problems or suggestions, you should either contact me or post to the list at http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/idle-dev (making it clear that you are using this modified version of IDLE). Changes: The ExecBinding module, a replacement for ScriptBinding, executes programs in a separate process, piping standard I/O through an RPC mechanism to an OnDemandOutputWindow in IDLE. It supports executing unnamed programs (through a temporary file). It does not yet support debugging. When running programs with ExecBinding, tracebacks will be clipped to exclude system modules. If, however, a system module calls back into the user program, that part of the traceback will be shown. The OnDemandOutputWindow class has been improved. In particular, it now supports a readline() function used to implement user input, and a scroll_clear() operation which is used to hide the output of a previous run by scrolling it out of the window. Startup behavior has been changed. By default IDLE starts up with just a blank editor window, rather than an interactive window. Opening a file in such a blank window replaces the (nonexistent) contents of that window instead of creating another window. Because of the need to have a well-known port for the ExecBinding protocol, only one copy of IDLE can be running. Additional invocations use the RPC mechanism to report their command line arguments to the copy already running. The menus have been reorganized. In particular, the excessively large 'edit' menu has been split up into 'edit', 'format', and 'run'. 'Python Documentation' now works on Windows, if the win32api module is present. A few key bindings have been changed: F1 now loads Python Documentation instead of the IDLE help; shift-TAB is now a synonym for unindent. New modules: ExecBinding.py Executes program through loader loader.py Bootstraps user program protocol.py RPC protocol Remote.py User-process interpreter spawn.py OS-specific code to start programs Files modified: autoindent.py ( bindings tweaked ) bindings.py ( menus reorganized ) config.txt ( execbinding enabled ) editorwindow.py ( new menus, fixed 'Python Documentation' ) filelist.py ( hook for "open in same window" ) formatparagraph.py ( bindings tweaked ) idle.bat ( removed absolute pathname ) idle.pyw ( weird bug due to import with same name? ) iobinding.py ( open in same window, EOL convention ) keydefs.py ( bindings tweaked ) outputwindow.py ( readline, scroll_clear, etc ) pyshell.py ( changed startup behavior ) readme.txt ( ) IDLE 0.5 - February 2000 ------------------------ This is an early release of IDLE, my own attempt at a Tkinter-based IDE for Python. For news about this release, see the file NEWS.txt. (For a more detailed change log, see the file ChangeLog.) FEATURES IDLE has the following features: - coded in 100% pure Python, using the Tkinter GUI toolkit (i.e. Tcl/Tk) - cross-platform: works on Windows and Unix (on the Mac, there are currently problems with Tcl/Tk) - multi-window text editor with multiple undo, Python colorizing and many other features, e.g. smart indent and call tips - Python shell window (a.k.a. interactive interpreter) - debugger (not complete, but you can set breakpoints, view and step) USAGE The main program is in the file "idle.py"; on Unix, you should be able to run it by typing "./idle.py" to your shell. On Windows, you can run it by double-clicking it; you can use idle.pyw to avoid popping up a DOS console. If you want to pass command line arguments on Windows, use the batch file idle.bat. Command line arguments: files passed on the command line are executed, not opened for editing, unless you give the -e command line option. Try "./idle.py -h" to see other command line options. IDLE requires Python 1.5.2, so it is currently only usable with a Python 1.5.2 distribution. (An older version of IDLE is distributed with Python 1.5.2; you can drop this version on top of it.) COPYRIGHT IDLE is covered by the standard Python copyright notice (http://www.python.org/doc/Copyright.html). FEEDBACK (removed, since Guido probably doesn't want complaints about my changes) --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)