[Python-3000] What do do about IDLE?

[Talin]

Paul Moore <p.f.moore <at> gmail.com> writes:

> On 5/7/06, Greg Wilson <gvwilson <at> cs.utoronto.ca> wrote:
> > > From: Greg Ewing <greg.ewing <at> canterbury.ac.nz>
> > > There is another alternative -- move both Tk and IDLE out of the core
> > > into separate downloads.
> >
> > +1.
> 
> If the implication here is that there is *no* GUI in the Python
> standard library, I'd be cautious of this (-0, probably). Things like
> the pydoc server use a little GUI window. The Twisted installer (IIRC)
> uses a Gui window while running the postinstall script, etc.
> Basically, if a generic Python script wants some form of GUI. Tk is
> available.
> 
> I've no problem with replacing Tk with an alternative. But there
> should be a GUI of some sort.

I had an odd thought about this last night.

It seems to me that, for the most part, any application that
requires a UI can be an external package that is installed via
easy_install. Given that we are going to finally *solve* the
problem of making it easy to add external packages (I hope)
there's a much weaker argument for making something part of
the std lib.

However, there is one type of application that I can think of
that is both GUI-based and at the same time makes a strong case
for its inclusion in the standard distribution: A visual
debugger.

I don't think we really need an IDE, but a debugger that is
at least able to show source code, call stack, and local
variables in a window would be extremely useful.

So my thought is this: How hard would it be to make
a curses-based debugger?

This gives me what I want, without requiring a GUI toolkit
be shipped with the standard libs.

(Could that be a possible Summer of Code project?)

-- Talin