python scratchpad (IDLE)

[phr]

BPO	1326830
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @kbkaiser

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/kbkaiser'
closed_at = <Date 2016-02-09.19:36:32.373>
created_at = <Date 2005-10-14.14:38:52.000>
labels = ['expert-IDLE', 'type-feature']
title = 'python scratchpad (IDLE)'
updated_at = <Date 2016-02-09.19:36:32.373>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/phr'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2016-02-09.19:36:32.373>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'kbk'
closed = True
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['IDLE']
creation = <Date 2005-10-14.14:38:52.000>
creator = 'phr'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1326830
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['54645', '54646', '259950']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'kbk', 'phr']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'rejected'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1326830'
versions = []

[phr]

Lots of times I want to use Idle sort of like a
Mathematica notebook but for Python. That is, I want
to enter some code and interactively run it, edit it,
run it some more, etc. Then, at the end, I typically
don't want to save it. It's like doing a calculation
on scratch paper and throwing away the paper after
finding the answer.

It's a bit of a pain to have to explicitly save such
code in a file, going through the whole file dialog,
after launching to a Python editor window. Most word
processors will generate an automatic filename like
"Untitled", or "Untitled-1", "Untitled-2", etc., if
"Untitled" already exists. That makes the dialog a bit
more streamlined.

It would be nice if this type of operation were easier
in IDLE. I'm not sure of the exact best way. Here are
some:

1. Have a default filename ("Untitled-<number>.py" for
   example) that saves to the user's home dir, or
   home/.idle, or maybe some configurable place. User
   could click to confirm (that's probably the easiest) or
   IDLE could display some kind of message (preferable)
   that doesn't need user interaction. IDLE has no status
   bar right now so maybe it would need one in order to
   display such a message conveniently.

I guess the message could be displayed in the Python
shell (by sending an appropriate print statement to the
subprocess) if the user saves by hitting F5 to run the
program.

2. (this is perhaps questionable) The default place to
   save the file could be in /tmp. On hitting F5, the
   Python shell would print a message noting that the file
   was only in /tmp and hadn't been saved anyplace permanent.

[kbkaiser]

Logged In: YES
user_id=149084

You're breaking my heart. Pick a file name (how about
reserving 'f'?) Select IDLE's autosave feature in the
Options dialog. When you F5 a new edit window, and
the Source Must be Saved dialog comes up, hit enter,
type an 'f', hit enter. Three keystrokes.

Maybe sometime I'll remove the Source Must be Saved
dialog if IDLE is set to Autosave, then it would be two
keystrokes.

The downside to implementing this is some poor soul
is going to lose significant work that he thought was
saved. Guido wan't even very happy with Autosave,
though I love it.

[terryjreedy]

I have a tem.py 'scratch' file which I use often enough that it is nearly always in the recent files list.

On the other hand, many beginners do not think to do that, and Guido has said recently to design for beginners. In bpo-19042, I propose that there should be an option to autosave Untitled to .idlerc/untitled.py, without associating the name with the Window.