NEWS2x.txt

What's New in IDLE 2.7? (Merged into 3.1 before 2.7 release.)
=======================
*Release date: XX-XXX-2010*

- idle.py modified and simplified to better support developing experimental
  versions of IDLE which are not installed in the standard location.

- OutputWindow/PyShell right click menu "Go to file/line" wasn't working with
  file paths containing spaces.  Bug 5559.

- Windows: Version string for the .chm help file changed, file not being
  accessed  Patch 5783 Guilherme Polo

- Allow multiple IDLE GUI/subprocess pairs to exist simultaneously. Thanks to
  David Scherer for suggesting the use of an ephemeral port for the GUI.
  Patch 1529142 Weeble.

- Remove port spec from run.py and fix bug where subprocess fails to
  extract port from command line when warnings are present.

- Tk 8.5 Text widget requires 'wordprocessor' tabstyle attr to handle
  mixed space/tab properly. Issue 5129, patch by Guilherme Polo.

- Issue #3549: On MacOS the preferences menu was not present

- IDLE would print a "Unhandled server exception!" message when internal
  debugging is enabled.

- Issue #4455: IDLE failed to display the windows list when two windows have
  the same title.

- Issue #4383: When IDLE cannot make the connection to its subprocess, it would
  fail to properly display the error message.

- help() was not paging to the shell.  Issue1650.

- CodeContext was not importing.

- Corrected two 3.0 compatibility errors reported by Mark Summerfield:
  http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-December/011491.html

- Shell was not colorizing due to bug introduced at r57998,  Bug 1586.

- Issue #1585: IDLE uses non-existent xrange() function.

- Windows EOL sequence not converted correctly, encoding error.
  Caused file save to fail. Bug 1130.

- IDLE converted to Python 3000 syntax.

- Strings became Unicode.

- CallTips module now uses the inspect module to produce the argspec.

- IDLE modules now use absolute import instead of implied relative import.

- atexit call replaces sys.exitfunc.  The functionality of delete-exitfunc flag
  in config-main.cfg remains unchanged: if set, registered exit functions will
  be cleared before IDLE exits.


What's New in IDLE 2.6
======================
*Release date: 01-Oct-2008*, merged into 3.0 releases detailed above (3.0rc2)

- Issue #2665: On Windows, an IDLE installation upgraded from an old version
  would not start if a custom theme was defined.

- Home / Control-A toggles between left margin and end of leading white
  space.  issue1196903, patch by Jeff Shute.

- Improved AutoCompleteWindow logic.  issue2062, patch by Tal Einat.

- Autocompletion of filenames now support alternate separators, e.g. the
  '/' char on Windows.  issue2061 Patch by Tal Einat.

- Configured selection highlighting colors were ignored; updating highlighting
  in the config dialog would cause non-Python files to be colored as if they
  were Python source; improve use of ColorDelagator.  Patch 1334. Tal Einat.

- ScriptBinding event handlers weren't returning 'break'. Patch 2050, Tal Einat

- There was an error on exit if no sys.exitfunc was defined. Issue 1647.

- Could not open files in .idlerc directory if latter was hidden on Windows.
  Issue 1743, Issue 1862.

- Configure Dialog: improved layout for keybinding.  Patch 1457 Tal Einat.

- tabpage.py updated: tabbedPages.py now supports multiple dynamic rows
  of tabs.  Patch 1612746 Tal Einat.

- Add confirmation dialog before printing.  Patch 1717170 Tal Einat.

- Show paste position if > 80 col.  Patch 1659326 Tal Einat.

- Update cursor color without restarting.  Patch 1725576 Tal Einat.

- Allow keyboard interrupt only when user code is executing in subprocess.
  Patch 1225 Tal Einat (reworked from IDLE-Spoon).

- configDialog cleanup. Patch 1730217 Tal Einat.

- textView cleanup. Patch 1718043 Tal Einat.

- Clean up EditorWindow close.

- Patch 1693258: Fix for duplicate "preferences" menu-OS X. Backport of r56204.

- OSX: Avoid crash for those versions of Tcl/Tk which don't have a console

- Bug in idlelib.MultiCall: Options dialog was crashing IDLE if there was an
  option in config-extensions w/o a value. Patch #1672481, Tal Einat

- Corrected some bugs in AutoComplete.  Also, Page Up/Down in ACW implemented;
  mouse and cursor selection in ACWindow implemented; double Tab inserts
  current selection and closes ACW (similar to double-click and Return); scroll
  wheel now works in ACW.  Added AutoComplete instructions to IDLE Help.

- AutoCompleteWindow moved below input line, will move above if there
  isn't enough space.  Patch 1621265 Tal Einat

- Calltips now 'handle' tuples in the argument list (display '<tuple>' :)
  Suggested solution by Christos Georgiou, Bug 791968.

- Add 'raw' support to configHandler. Patch 1650174 Tal Einat.

- Avoid hang when encountering a duplicate in a completion list. Bug 1571112.

- Patch #1362975: Rework CodeContext indentation algorithm to
  avoid hard-coding pixel widths.

- Bug #813342: Start the IDLE subprocess with -Qnew if the parent
  is started with that option.

- Honor the "Cancel" action in the save dialog (Debian bug #299092)

- Some syntax errors were being caught by tokenize during the tabnanny
  check, resulting in obscure error messages.  Do the syntax check
  first.  Bug 1562716, 1562719

- IDLE's version number takes a big jump to match the version number of
  the Python release of which it's a part.


What's New in IDLE 1.2?
=======================
*Release date: 19-SEP-2006*

- File menu hotkeys: there were three 'p' assignments.  Reassign the
  'Save Copy As' and 'Print' hotkeys to 'y' and 't'.  Change the
  Shell hotkey from 's' to 'l'.

- IDLE honors new quit() and exit() commands from site.py Quitter() object.
  Patch 1540892, Jim Jewett

- The 'with' statement is now a Code Context block opener.
  Patch 1540851, Jim Jewett

- Retrieval of previous shell command was not always preserving indentation
  (since 1.2a1) Patch 1528468 Tal Einat.

- Changing tokenize (39046) to detect dedent broke tabnanny check (since 1.2a1)

- ToggleTab dialog was setting indent to 8 even if cancelled (since 1.2a1).

- When used w/o subprocess, all exceptions were preceded by an error
  message claiming they were IDLE internal errors (since 1.2a1).

- Bug #1525817: Don't truncate short lines in IDLE's tool tips.

- Bug #1517990: IDLE keybindings on MacOS X now work correctly

- Bug #1517996: IDLE now longer shows the default Tk menu when a
  path browser, class browser or debugger is the frontmost window on MacOS X

- EditorWindow.test() was failing.  Bug 1417598

- EditorWindow failed when used stand-alone if sys.ps1 not set.
  Bug 1010370 Dave Florek

- Tooltips failed on new-syle class __init__ args.  Bug 1027566 Loren Guthrie

- Avoid occasional failure to detect closing paren properly.
  Patch 1407280 Tal Einat

- Rebinding Tab key was inserting 'tab' instead of 'Tab'.  Bug 1179168.

- Colorizer now handles #<builtin> correctly, also unicode strings and
  'as' keyword in comment directly following import command. Closes 1325071.
  Patch 1479219 Tal Einat

- Patch #1162825: Support non-ASCII characters in IDLE window titles.

- Source file f.flush() after writing; trying to avoid lossage if user
  kills GUI.

- Options / Keys / Advanced dialog made functional.  Also, allow binding
  of 'movement' keys.

- 'syntax' patch adds improved calltips and a new class attribute listbox.
  MultiCall module allows binding multiple actions to an event.
  Patch 906702 Noam Raphael

- Better indentation after first line of string continuation.
  IDLEfork Patch 681992, Noam Raphael

- Fixed CodeContext alignment problem, following suggestion from Tal Einat.

- Increased performance in CodeContext extension  Patch 936169 Noam Raphael

- Mac line endings were incorrect when pasting code from some browsers
  when using X11 and the Fink distribution.  Python Bug 1263656.

- <Enter> when cursor is on a previous command retrieves that command.  Instead
  of replacing the input line, the previous command is now appended to the
  input line. Indentation is preserved, and undo is enabled.
  Patch 1196917  Jeff Shute

- Clarify "tab/space" Error Dialog and "Tab Width" Dialog associated with
  the Untabify command.

- Corrected "tab/space" Error Dialog to show correct menu for Untabify.
  Patch 1196980 Jeff Shute

- New files are colorized by default, and colorizing is removed when
  saving as non-Python files. Patch 1196895 Jeff Shute
  Closes Python Bugs 775012 and 800432, partial fix IDLEfork 763524

- Improve subprocess link error notification.

- run.py: use Queue's blocking feature instead of sleeping in the main
  loop.  Patch # 1190163 Michiel de Hoon

- Add config-main option to make the 'history' feature non-cyclic.
  Default remains cyclic.  Python Patch 914546 Noam Raphael.

- Removed ability to configure tabs indent from Options dialog.  This 'feature'
  has never worked and no one has complained.  It is still possible to set a
  default tabs (v. spaces) indent 'manually' via config-main.def (or to turn on
  tabs for the current EditorWindow via the Format menu) but IDLE will
  encourage indentation via spaces.

- Enable setting the indentation width using the Options dialog.
  Bug # 783877

- Add keybindings for del-word-left and del-word-right.

- Discourage using an indent width other than 8 when using tabs to indent
  Python code.

- Restore use of EditorWindow.set_indentation_params(), was dead code since
  Autoindent was merged into EditorWindow.  This allows IDLE to conform to the
  indentation width of a loaded file.  (But it still will not switch to tabs
  even if the file uses tabs.)  Any change in indent width is local to that
  window.

- Add Tabnanny check before Run/F5, not just when Checking module.

- If an extension can't be loaded, print warning and skip it instead of
  erroring out.

- Improve error handling when .idlerc can't be created (warn and exit).

- The GUI was hanging if the shell window was closed while a raw_input()
  was pending.  Restored the quit() of the readline() mainloop().
  http://mail.python.org/pipermail/idle-dev/2004-December/002307.html

- The remote procedure call module rpc.py can now access data attributes of
  remote registered objects.  Changes to these attributes are local, however.


What's New in IDLE 1.1?
=======================
*Release date: 30-NOV-2004*

- On OpenBSD, terminating IDLE with ctrl-c from the command line caused a
  stuck subprocess MainThread because only the SocketThread was exiting.

- Saving a Keyset w/o making changes (by using the "Save as New Custom Key Set"
  button) caused IDLE to fail on restart (no new keyset was created in
  config-keys.cfg).  Also true for Theme/highlights.  Python Bug 1064535.

- A change to the linecache.py API caused IDLE to exit when an exception was
  raised while running without the subprocess (-n switch).  Python Bug 1063840.

- When paragraph reformat width was made configurable, a bug was
  introduced that caused reformatting of comment blocks to ignore how
  far the block was indented, effectively adding the indentation width
  to the reformat width.  This has been repaired, and the reformat
  width is again a bound on the total width of reformatted lines.

- Improve keyboard focus binding, especially in Windows menu.  Improve
  window raising, especially in the Windows menu and in the debugger.
  IDLEfork 763524.

- If user passes a non-existent filename on the commandline, just
  open a new file, don't raise a dialog.  IDLEfork 854928.

- EditorWindow.py was not finding the .chm help file on Windows.  Typo
  at Rev 1.54.  Python Bug 990954

- checking sys.platform for substring 'win' was breaking IDLE docs on Mac
  (darwin).  Also, Mac Safari browser requires full file:// URIs.  SF 900580.

- Redirect the warning stream to the shell during the ScriptBinding check of
  user code and format the warning similarly to an exception for both that
  check and for runtime warnings raised in the subprocess.

- CodeContext hint pane visibility state is now persistent across sessions.
  The pane no longer appears in the shell window.  Added capability to limit
  extensions to shell window or editor windows.  Noam Raphael addition
  to Patch 936169.

- Paragraph reformat width is now a configurable parameter in the
  Options GUI.

- New Extension: CodeContext.  Provides block structuring hints for code
  which has scrolled above an edit window. Patch 936169 Noam Raphael.

- If nulls somehow got into the strings in recent-files.lst
  EditorWindow.update_recent_files_list() was failing.  Python Bug 931336.

- If the normal background is changed via Configure/Highlighting, it will
  update immediately, thanks to the previously mentioned patch by Nigel Rowe.

- Add a highlight theme for builtin keywords.  Python Patch 805830 Nigel Rowe
  This also fixed IDLEfork bug [ 693418 ] Normal text background color not
  refreshed and Python bug [897872 ] Unknown color name on HP-UX

- rpc.py:SocketIO - Large modules were generating large pickles when downloaded
  to the execution server.  The return of the OK response from the subprocess
  initialization was interfering and causing the sending socket to be not
  ready.  Add an IO ready test to fix this.  Moved the polling IO ready test
  into pollpacket().

- Fix typo in rpc.py, s/b "pickle.PicklingError" not "pickle.UnpicklingError".

- Added a Tk error dialog to run.py inform the user if the subprocess can't
  connect to the user GUI process.  Added a timeout to the GUI's listening
  socket.  Added Tk error dialogs to PyShell.py to announce a failure to bind
  the port or connect to the subprocess.  Clean up error handling during
  connection initiation phase.  This is an update of Python Patch 778323.

- Print correct exception even if source file changed since shell was
  restarted.  IDLEfork Patch 869012 Noam Raphael

- Keybindings with the Shift modifier now work correctly.  So do bindings which
  use the Space key.  Limit unmodified user keybindings to the function keys.
  Python Bug 775353, IDLEfork Bugs 755647, 761557

- After an exception, run.py was not setting the exception vector. Noam
  Raphael suggested correcting this so pdb's postmortem pm() would work.
  IDLEfork Patch 844675

- IDLE now does not fail to save the file anymore if the Tk buffer is not a
  Unicode string, yet eol_convention is.  Python Bugs 774680, 788378

- IDLE didn't start correctly when Python was installed in "Program Files" on
  W2K and XP.  Python Bugs 780451, 784183

- config-main.def documentation incorrectly referred to idle- instead of
  config-  filenames.  SF 782759  Also added note about .idlerc location.


What's New in IDLE 1.0?
=======================
*Release date: 29-Jul-2003*

- Added a banner to the shell discussing warnings possibly raised by personal
  firewall software.  Added same comment to README.txt.

- Calltip error when docstring was None  Python Bug 775541

- Updated extend.txt, help.txt, and config-extensions.def to correctly
  reflect the current status of the configuration system.  Python Bug 768469

- Fixed: Call Tip Trimming May Loop Forever. Python Patch 769142 (Daniels)

- Replaced apply(f, args, kwds) with f(*args, **kwargs) to improve performance
  Python Patch 768187

- Break or continue statements outside a loop were causing IDLE crash
  Python Bug 767794

- Convert Unicode strings from readline to IOBinding.encoding.  Also set
  sys.std{in|out|err}.encoding, for both the local and the subprocess case.
  SF IDLEfork patch 682347.

- Extend AboutDialog.ViewFile() to support file encodings.  Make the CREDITS
  file Latin-1.

- Updated the About dialog to reflect re-integration into Python.  Provide
  buttons to display Python's NEWS, License, and Credits, plus additional
  buttons for IDLE's README and NEWS.

- TextViewer() now has a third parameter which allows inserting text into the
  viewer instead of reading from a file.

- (Created the .../Lib/idlelib directory in the Python CVS, which is a clone of
  IDLEfork modified to install in the Python environment.  The code in the
  interrupt module has been moved to thread.interrupt_main(). )

- Printing the Shell window was failing if it was not saved first SF 748975

- When using the Search in Files dialog, if the user had a selection
  highlighted in his Editor window, insert it into the dialog search field.

- The Python Shell entry was disappearing from the Windows menu.

- Update the Windows file list when a file name change occurs

- Change to File / Open Module: always pop up the dialog, using the current
  selection as the default value.  This is easier to use habitually.

- Avoided a problem with starting the subprocess when 'localhost' doesn't
  resolve to the user's loopback interface.  SF 747772

- Fixed an issue with highlighted errors never de-colorizing.  SF 747677.  Also
  improved notification of Tabnanny Token Error.

- File / New will by default save in the directory of the Edit window from
  which it was initiated.  SF 748973 Guido van Rossum patch.


What's New in IDLEfork 0.9b1?
=============================
*Release date: 02-Jun-2003*

- The current working directory of the execution environment (and shell
  following completion of execution) is now that of the module being run.

- Added the delete-exitfunc option to config-main.def.  (This option is not
  included in the Options dialog.)  Setting this to True (the default) will
  cause IDLE to not run sys.exitfunc/atexit when the subprocess exits.

- IDLE now preserves the line ending codes when editing a file produced on
  a different platform. SF 661759,  SF 538584

- Reduced default editor font size to 10 point and increased window height
  to provide a better initial impression on Windows.

- Options / Fonts/Tabs / Set Base Editor Font: List box was not highlighting
  the default font when first installed on Windows.  SF 661676

- Added Autosave feature: when user runs code from edit window, if the file
  has been modified IDLE will silently save it if Autosave is enabled.  The
  option is set in the Options dialog, and the default is to prompt the
  user to save the file.   SF 661318 Bruce Sherwood patch.

- Improved the RESTART annotation in the shell window when the user restarts
  the shell while it is generating output.  Also improved annotation when user
  repeatedly hammers the Ctrl-F6 restart.

- Allow IDLE to run when not installed and cwd is not the IDLE directory
  SF Patch 686254 "Run IDLEfork from any directory without set-up" - Raphael

- When a module is run from an EditorWindow: if its directory is not in
  sys.path, prepend it.  This allows the module to import other modules in
  the same directory.  Do the same for a script run from the command line.

- Correctly restart the subprocess if it is running user code and the user
  attempts to run some other module or restarts the shell.  Do the same if
  the link is broken and it is possible to restart the subprocess and re-
  connect to the GUI.   SF RFE 661321.

- Improved exception reporting when running commands or scripts from the
  command line.

- Added a -n command line switch to start IDLE without the subprocess.
  Removed the Shell menu when running in that mode.  Updated help messages.

- Added a comment to the shell startup header to indicate when IDLE is not
  using the subprocess.

- Restore the ability to run without the subprocess.  This can be important for
  some platforms or configurations.  (Running without the subprocess allows the
  debugger to trace through parts of IDLE itself, which may or may not be
  desirable, depending on your point of view.  In addition, the traditional
  reload/import tricks must be use if user source code is changed.)  This is
  helpful for developing IDLE using IDLE, because one instance can be used to
  edit the code and a separate instance run to test changes.  (Multiple
  concurrent IDLE instances with subprocesses is a future feature)

- Improve the error message a user gets when saving a file with non-ASCII
  characters and no source encoding is specified.  Done by adding a dialog
  'EncodingMessage', which contains the line to add in a fixed-font entry
  widget, and which has a button to add that line to the file automatically.
  Also, add a configuration option 'EditorWindow/encoding', which has three
  possible values: none, utf-8, and locale. None is the default: IDLE will show
  this dialog when non-ASCII characters are encountered. utf-8 means that files
  with non-ASCII characters are saved as utf-8-with-bom. locale means that
  files are saved in the locale's encoding; the dialog is only displayed if the
  source contains characters outside the locale's charset.  SF 710733 - Loewis

- Improved I/O response by tweaking the wait parameter in various
  calls to signal.signal().

- Implemented a threaded subprocess which allows interrupting a pass
  loop in user code using the 'interrupt' extension.  User code runs
  in MainThread, while the RPCServer is handled by SockThread.  This is
  necessary because Windows doesn't support signals.

- Implemented the 'interrupt' extension module, which allows a subthread
  to raise a KeyboardInterrupt in the main thread.

- Attempting to save the shell raised an error related to saving
  breakpoints, which are not implemented in the shell

- Provide a correct message when 'exit' or 'quit' are entered at the
  IDLE command prompt  SF 695861

- Eliminate extra blank line in shell output caused by not flushing
  stdout when user code ends with an unterminated print. SF 695861

- Moved responsibility for exception formatting (i.e. pruning IDLE internal
  calls) out of rpc.py into the client and server.

- Exit IDLE cleanly even when doing subprocess I/O

- Handle subprocess interrupt with an RPC message.

- Restart the subprocess if it terminates itself. (VPython programs do that)

- Support subclassing of exceptions, including in the shell, by moving the
  exception formatting to the subprocess.


What's New in IDLEfork 0.9 Alpha 2?
===================================
*Release date: 27-Jan-2003*

- Updated INSTALL.txt to claify use of the python2 rpm.

- Improved formatting in IDLE Help.

- Run menu: Replace "Run Script" with "Run Module".

- Code encountering an unhandled exception under the debugger now shows
  the correct traceback, with IDLE internal levels pruned out.

- If an exception occurs entirely in IDLE, don't prune the IDLE internal
  modules from the traceback displayed.

- Class Browser and Path Browser now use Alt-Key-2 for vertical zoom.

- IDLE icons will now install correctly even when setup.py is run from the
  build directory

- Class Browser now compatible with Python2.3 version of pyclbr.py

- Left cursor move in presence of selected text now moves from left end
  of the selection.

- Add Meta keybindings to "IDLE Classic Windows" to handle reversed
  Alt/Meta on some Linux distros.

- Change default: IDLE now starts with Python Shell.

- Removed the File Path from the Additional Help Sources scrolled list.

- Add capability to access Additional Help Sources on the web if the
  Help File Path begins with //http or www.  (Otherwise local path is
  validated, as before.)

- Additional Help Sources were not being posted on the Help menu in the
  order entered.  Implement sorting the list by [HelpFiles] 'option'
  number.

- Add Browse button to New Help Source dialog.  Arrange to start in
  Python/Doc if platform is Windows, otherwise start in current directory.

- Put the Additional Help Sources directly on the Help menu instead of in
  an Extra Help cascade menu.  Rearrange the Help menu so the Additional
  Help Sources come last.  Update help.txt appropriately.

- Fix Tk root pop-ups in configSectionNameDialog.py  and configDialog.py

- Uniform capitalization in General tab of ConfigDialog, update the doc string.

- Fix bug in ConfigDialog where SaveAllChangedConfig() was unexpectedly
  deleting Additional Help Sources from the user's config file.

- Make configHelpSourceEdit OK button the default and bind <Return>

- Fix Tk root pop-ups in configHelpSourceEdit: error dialogs not attached
  to parents.

- Use os.startfile() to open both Additional Help and Python Help on the
  Windows platform.  The application associated with the file type will act as
  the viewer.  Windows help files (.chm) are now supported via the
  Settings/General/Additional Help facility.

- If Python Help files are installed locally on Linux, use them instead of
  accessing python.org.

- Make the methods for finding the Python help docs more robust, and make
  them work in the installed configuration, also.

- On the Save Before Run dialog, make the OK button the default.  One
  less mouse action!

- Add a method: EditorWindow.get_geometry() for future use in implementing
  window location persistence.

- Removed the "Help/Advice" menu entry.  Thanks, David!  We'll remember!

- Change the "Classic Windows" theme's paste key to be <ctrl-v>.

- Rearrange the Shell menu to put Stack Viewer entries adjacent.

- Add the ability to restart the subprocess interpreter from the shell window;
  add an associated menu entry "Shell/Restart" with binding Control-F6.  Update
  IDLE help.

- Upon a restart, annotate the shell window with a "restart boundary".  Add a
  shell window menu "Shell/View Restart" with binding F6 to jump to the most
  recent restart boundary.

- Add Shell menu to Python Shell; change "Settings" to "Options".

- Remove incorrect comment in setup.py: IDLEfork is now installed as a package.

- Add INSTALL.txt, HISTORY.txt, NEWS.txt to installed configuration.

- In installer text, fix reference to Visual Python, should be VPython.
  Properly credit David Scherer.

- Modified idle, idle.py, idle.pyw to improve exception handling.


What's New in IDLEfork 0.9 Alpha 1?
===================================
*Release date: 31-Dec-2002*

- First release of major new functionality.  For further details refer to
  Idle-dev and/or the Sourceforge CVS.

- Adapted to the Mac platform.

- Overhauled the IDLE startup options and revised the idle -h help message,
  which provides details of command line usage.

- Multiple bug fixes and usability enhancements.

- Introduced the new RPC implementation, which includes a debugger.  The output
  of user code is to the shell, and the shell may be used to inspect the
  environment after the run has finished.  (In version 0.8.1 the shell
  environment was separate from the environment of the user code.)

- Introduced the configuration GUI and a new About dialog.

- Removed David Scherer's Remote Procedure Call code and replaced with Guido
  van Rossum's.  GvR code has support for the IDLE debugger and uses the shell
  to inspect the environment of code Run from an Edit window.  Files removed:
  ExecBinding.py, loader.py, protocol.py, Remote.py, spawn.py

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Refer to HISTORY.txt for additional information on earlier releases.
--------------------------------------------------------------------