So far, we’ve seen how to run Python code with the interactive prompt, system command lines, Unix-style scripts, icon clicks, module imports, and exec calls. If you’re looking for something a bit more visual, IDLE provides a graphical user interface for doing Python development, and it’s a standard and free part of the Python system. IDLE is usually referred to as an integrated development environment (IDE), because it binds together various development tasks into a single view.[9]
In short, IDLE is a desktop GUI that lets you edit, run, browse, and debug Python programs, all from a single interface. It runs portably on most Python platforms, including Microsoft Windows, X Windows (for Linux, Unix, and Unix-like platforms), and the Mac OS (both Classic and OS X). For many, IDLE represents an easy-to-use alternative to typing command lines, a less problem-prone alternative to clicking on icons, and a great way for newcomers to get started editing and running code. You’ll sacrifice some control in the bargain, but this typically becomes important later in your Python career.
Most readers should be able to use IDLE immediately, as it is a standard component on Mac OS X and most Linux installations today, and is installed automatically with standard Python on Windows. Because platforms specifics vary, though, I need to give a few pointers before we open the GUI.
Technically, IDLE is a Python program that uses the standard library’s tkinter GUI toolkit (named Tkinter in Python 2.X) to build its windows. This makes IDLE portable—it works the same on all major desktop platforms—but it also means that you’ll need to have tkinter support in your Python to use IDLE. This support is standard on Windows, Macs, and Linux, but it comes with a few caveats on some systems, and startup can vary per platform. Here are a few platform-specific tips:
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On Windows 7 and earlier, IDLE is easy to start—it’s always present after a Python install, and has an entry in the Start button menu for Python in Windows 7 and earlier (see Figure 2-1, shown previously). You can also select it by right-clicking on a Python program icon, and launch it by clicking on the icon for the files idle.pyw or idle.py located in the idlelib subdirectory of Python’s Lib directory. In this mode, IDLE is a clickable Python script that lives in C:\Python33\Lib\idlelib, C:\Python27\Lib\idlelib, or similar, which you can drag out to a shortcut for one-click access if desired.
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On Windows 8, look for IDLE in your Start tiles, by a search for “idle,” by browsing your “All apps” Start screen display, or by using File Explorer to find the idle.py file mentioned earlier. You may want a shortcut here, as you have no Start button menu in desktop mode (at least today; see Appendix A for more pointers).
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On Mac OS X everything required for IDLE is present as standard components in your operating system. IDLE should be available to launch in Applications under the MacPython (or Python N.M) program folder. One note here: some OS X versions may require installing updated tkinter support due to subtle version dependencies I’ll spare readers from here; see python.org’s Download page for details.
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On Linux IDLE is also usually present as a standard component today. It might take the form of an idle executable or script in your path; type this in a shell to check. On some machines, it may require an install (see Appendix A for pointers), and on others you may need to launch IDLE’s top-level script from a command line or icon click: run the file idle.py located in the idlelib subdirectory of Python’s /usr/lib directory (run a
findfor the exact location).
Because IDLE is just a Python script on the module search path in the standard library, you can also generally run it on any platform and from any directory by typing the following in a system command shell window (e.g., in a Command Prompt on Windows), though you’ll have to see Appendix A for more on Python’s –m flag, and Part V for more on the “.” package syntax required here (blind trust will suffice at this point in the book):
c:\code> python -m idlelib.idle # Run idle.py in a package on module path
For more on install issues and usage notes for Windows and other platforms, be sure to see both Appendix A as well as the notes for your platform in “Python Setup and Usage” in Python’s standard manuals.
Let’s jump into an example. Figure 3-3 shows the scene after you start IDLE on Windows. The Python shell window that opens initially is the main window, which runs an interactive session (notice the >>> prompt). This works like all interactive sessions—code you type here is run immediately after you type it—and serves as a testing and experimenting tool.
Figure 3-3. The main Python shell window of the IDLE development GUI, shown here running on Windows. Use the File menu to begin (New Window) or change (Open...) a source file; use the text edit window’s Run menu to run the code in that window (Run Module).
IDLE uses familiar menus with keyboard shortcuts for most of its operations. To make a new script file under IDLE, use File→New: in the main shell window, select the File pull-down menu, and pick New to open a new text edit window where you can type, save, and run your file’s code. Use File→Open... instead to open a new text edit window displaying an existing file’s code to edit and run.
Although it may not show up fully in this book’s graphics, IDLE uses syntax-directed colorization for the code typed in both the main window and all text edit windows—keywords are one color, literals are another, and so on. This helps give you a better picture of the components in your code (and can even help you spot mistakes—run-on strings are all one color, for example).
To run a file of code that you are editing in IDLE, use Run→Run Module in that file’s text edit window. That is, select the file’s text edit window, open that window’s Run pull-down menu, and choose the Run Module option listed there (or use the equivalent keyboard shortcut, given in the menu). Python will let you know that you need to save your file first if you’ve changed it since it was opened or last saved and forgot to save your changes—a common mistake when you’re knee-deep in coding.
When run this way, the output of your script and any error messages it may generate show up back in the main interactive window (the Python shell window). In Figure 3-3, for example, the three lines after the “RESTART” line near the middle of the window reflect an execution of our script1.py file opened in a separate edit window. The “RESTART” message tells us that the user-code process was restarted to run the edited script and serves to separate script output (it does not appear if IDLE is started without a user-code subprocess—more on this mode in a moment).
Like most GUIs, the best way to learn IDLE may be to test-drive it for yourself, but some key usage points seem to be less than obvious. For example, if you want to repeat prior commands in IDLE’s main interactive window, you can use the Alt-P key combination to scroll backward through the command history, and Alt-N to scroll forward (on some Macs, try Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N instead). Your prior commands will be recalled and displayed, and may be edited and rerun.
You can also recall commands by positioning the cursor on them and clicking and pressing Enter to insert their text at the input prompt, or using standard cut-and-paste operations, though these techniques tend to involve more steps (and can sometimes be triggered accidentally). Outside IDLE, you may be able to recall commands in an interactive session with the arrow keys on Windows.
Besides command history and syntax colorization, IDLE has additional usability features such as:
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Auto-indent and unindent for Python code in the editor (Backspace goes back one level)
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Word auto-completion while typing, invoked by a Tab press
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Balloon help pop ups for a function call when you type its opening “(”
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Pop-up selection lists of object attributes when you type a “.” after an object’s name and either pause or press Tab
Some of these may not work on every platform, and some can be configured or disabled if you find that their defaults get in the way of your personal coding style.
Besides the basic edit and run functions and the prior section’s usability tools, IDLE provides more advanced features, including a point-and-click program graphical debugger and an object browser. The IDLE debugger is enabled via the Debug menu and the object browser via the File menu. The browser allows you to navigate through the module search path to files and objects in files; clicking on a file or object opens the corresponding source in a text edit window.
You initiate IDLE debugging by selecting the Debug→Debugger menu option in the main window and then starting your script by selecting the Run→Run Module option in the text edit window; once the debugger is enabled, you can set breakpoints in your code that stop its execution by right-clicking on lines in the text edit windows, show variable values, and so on. You can also watch program execution when debugging—the current line of code is noted as you step through your code.
For simpler debugging operations, you can also right-click with your mouse on the text of an error message to quickly jump to the line of code where the error occurred—a trick that makes it simple and fast to repair and run again. In addition, IDLE’s text editor offers a large collection of programmer-friendly tools, including advanced text and file search operations we won’t cover here. Because IDLE uses intuitive GUI interactions, you should experiment with the system live to get a feel for its other tools.
IDLE is free, easy to use, portable, and automatically available on most platforms. I generally recommend it to Python newcomers because it simplifies some startup details and does not assume prior experience with system command lines. However, it is somewhat limited compared to more advanced commercial IDEs, and may seem heavier than a command line to some. To help you avoid some common pitfalls, here is a list of issues that IDLE beginners should bear in mind:
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You must add “.py” explicitly when saving your files. I mentioned this when talking about files in general, but it’s a common IDLE stumbling block, especially for Windows users. IDLE does not automatically add a .py extension to filenames when files are saved. Be careful to type the .py extension yourself when saving a file for the first time. If you don’t, while you will be able to run your file from IDLE (and system command lines), you will not be able to import it either interactively or from other modules.
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Run scripts by selecting Run→Run Module in text edit windows, not by interactive imports and reloads. Earlier in this chapter, we saw that it’s possible to run a file by importing it interactively. However, this scheme can grow complex because it requires you to manually reload files after changes. By contrast, using the Run→Run Module menu option in IDLE always runs the most current version of your file, just like running it using a system shell command line. IDLE also prompts you to save your file first, if needed (another common mistake outside IDLE).
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You need to reload only modules being tested interactively. Like system shell command lines, IDLE’s Run→Run Module menu option always runs the current version of both the top-level file and any modules it imports. Because of this, Run→Run Module eliminates common confusions surrounding imports. You need to reload only modules that you are importing and testing interactively in IDLE. If you choose to use the import and reload technique instead of Run→Run Module, remember that you can use the Alt-P/Alt-N key combinations to recall prior commands.
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You can customize IDLE. To change the text fonts and colors in IDLE, select the Configure option in the Options menu of any IDLE window. You can also customize key combination actions, indentation settings, autocompletions, and more; see IDLE’s Help pull-down menu for more hints.
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There is currently no clear-screen option in IDLE. This seems to be a frequent request (perhaps because it’s an option available in similar IDEs), and it might be added eventually. Today, though, there is no way to clear the interactive window’s text. If you want the window’s text to go away, you can either press and hold the Enter key, or type a Python loop to print a series of blank lines (nobody really uses the latter technique, of course, but it sounds more high-tech than pressing the Enter key!).
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tkinter GUI and threaded programs may not work well with IDLE. Because IDLE is a Python/tkinter program, it can hang if you use it to run certain types of advanced Python/tkinter programs. This has become less of an issue in more recent versions of IDLE that run user code in one process and the IDLE GUI itself in another, but some programs (especially those that use multithreading) might still hang the GUI. Even just calling the tkinter
quitfunction in your code, the normal way to exit a GUI program, may be enough to cause your program’s GUI to hang if run in IDLE (destroymay be better here only). Your code may not exhibit such problems, but as a rule of thumb, it’s always safe to use IDLE to edit GUI programs but launch them using other options, such as icon clicks or system command lines. When in doubt, if your code fails in IDLE, try it outside the GUI. -
If connection errors arise, try starting IDLE in single-process mode. This issue appears to have gone away in recent Pythons, but may still impact readers using older versions. Because IDLE requires communication between its separate user and GUI processes, it can sometimes have trouble starting up on certain platforms (notably, it fails to start occasionally on some Windows machines, due to firewall software that blocks connections). If you run into such connection errors, it’s always possible to start IDLE with a system command line that forces it to run in single-process mode without a user-code subprocess and therefore avoids communication issues: its
-ncommand-line flag forces this mode. On Windows, for example, start a Command Prompt window and run the system command lineidle.py -nfrom within the directory C:\Python33\Lib\idlelib (cdthere first if needed). Apython -m idlelib.idle –ncommand works from anywhere (see Appendix A for–m). -
Beware of some IDLE usability features. IDLE does much to make life easier for beginners, but some of its tricks won’t apply outside the IDLE GUI. For instance, IDLE runs your scripts in its own interactive namespace, so variables in your code show up automatically in the IDLE interactive session—you don’t always need to run
importcommands to access names at the top level of files you’ve already run. This can be handy, but it can also be confusing, because outside the IDLE environment names must always be imported from files explicitly to be used.When you run a file of code, IDLE also automatically changes to that file’s directory and adds it to the module import search path—a handy feature that allows you to use files and import modules there without search path settings, but also something that won’t work the same when you run files outside IDLE. It’s OK to use such features, but don’t forget that they are IDLE behavior, not Python behavior.