Is there a "reset" in Idle?

[Alex Martelli]

GerritM wrote:
        ...
>> > If I had any influence in the development of Python as a whole, I'd
>> > urge the developers to divert their attention away from sexy new
>> > language features and concentrate for a couple of releases on
>> > addressing shotcomings that shag the IDEs.
>>
>> I don't think there are any.  As long as the IDE runs the Python
>> application being debugged in a separate process (a pretty obvious
>> need -- pity that neither IDLE nor PythonWin do that), what would
>> those shortcomings be?
        ...
> As far as I am concerned this is the only catch I have repeatedly hit.
> Changing one of the imported modules and not reloading it. Feedback from
> potential converts indicate that they hit this catch early in the learning
> curve, with the danger of preempting their conversion.

But what does this have to do with any shortcoming in Python?  This
seems to be strictly a GUI issue with whatever IDE's you have in mind:

> I assume that hitting CTRL-F5 for every changed file in IDLE has the
> effect of reloading. If that is the case then I have to train myself
> to hit CTRL-S followed by CTRL-F5 after each module change. I think that
> the VPython IDLE does an automatic save with CTRL-F5, which I experience
> as desired behavior.

How does Python's own behavior "shag the IDEs" in any way in
this respect?  I must be missing something.


Alex