[Python-Dev] [Idle-dev] Removing IDLE from the standard library

[Kurt B. Kaiser]

On Mon, Jul 12 2010, Neil Hodgson wrote:

>    On the main editing screen of IDLE, the most noticeable issue is
> that there is no horizontal scroll bar even though the text will move
> left when you move the caret beyond the rightmost visible character.

That was a design decision by Guido to encourage keeping to 80 columns.

> The scrollbar and status bar have an appearance that looks to be from
> Windows 2000, not Windows XP

Tk issue, maybe we can address it with theming.

> and there is no resizing gripper on the right side of the status
> bar. 

Although the corner can be dragged, that would be useful.  As I
recollect, we special-cased it so there is a space for the Mac gripper!

> The tear off menus are ugly as well as being non-standard on all three
> major platforms.

Well, would you discard them? They can (occasionally) be useful.

>    Use the "Configure IDLE..." and an "idle" dialog appears that also
> looks to be from Windows 2000. I know Tk can do better than this as
> Git Gui (the Tk (8.5.8) program I use most often) at least shows XP
> themed buttons, scrollbars and other controls. However, the "idle"
> dialog (as well as Git Gui) shows the largest remaining problem for Tk
> user interfaces: keyboard navigation. When the "idle" dialog opens,
> try doing anything with the keyboard. Chances are nothing will happen.
> If you press Tab 16 times (yes, 16!) a focus rectangle will finally
> show on the "Bold" check box. Another Tab takes you to the
> "Indentation Width" slider. After that you don't see the focus until
> it wraps around to "Bold" again. The Enter key doesn't trigger OK and
> the Escape key doesn't let you escape.
>
>    The Find and Replace dialogs are better as focus works as do Enter
> and Escape but none of the buttons have mnemonics.
>
>    This may all sound like picking nits but details and consistency
> are important in user interfaces and this is just looking at the most
> easily discovered problems.

No, these are worthwhile improvements, and not too difficult.

-- 
Thanks, KBK