IDLE History

============

This file contains the release messages for previous IDLE releases.

As you read on you go back to the dark ages of IDLE's history.

IDLE fork 0.7.1 - 29 May 2000

-----------------------------

David Scherer <[email protected]>

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 ( <Recursion on file with id=1234567> )

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).