[Edu-sig] Tk from IDLE: How to 'Hello World'?

[Jason Cunliffe]

Interesting points about IDLE. Thanks for bringing this clearly the surface.

I stopped using IDLE some time ago and started using PythonWin, because as a
newbie I found more stuff simply worked first time when I tried it .. being
a newbie I was not skilled enough to figure out why IDLE was throwing up at
me..

PythonWin has the nice Edit Python Path menu which for newbies is also very
helpful. It would be even more helpful it is was documented or had an intro
tutorial how to use it. But eventually one finds out.

PythonWin will not help anyone not working on Win32 of course so there is
still a problem.
Which leaves TKinter or wxPython-based tools.

Boa looks like it be a good cross-platform IDE for Python, since it allows
more experienced Programmers to really extend the feature set with widgets
and interfaces targeted at various applications. What it lacks perhaps at
the moment is stability and focus for this use. It is a sophisticated
multifaceted creature.

But for education it looks like it might be a better long-term base than
IDLE or PythonWin, because one can really build applications with it. And
once students get past the basics they can open up the box itself.
Install the Boa folder inside Python/tools. click on boa.py and it launches.
At the moment it is rather too confusing with a lot if tabs and windows -
not a good for day1.. but those might also be configured to be turned off as
newbie defaults.

any thoughts?
- Jason