First Timer

[Mensanator]

On May 11, 4:37 pm, Terry Reedy <tjre... at udel.edu> wrote:
> On 5/11/2010 3:28 PM, Donna Lane wrote:
>
> > I have downloaded Python and I'm a beginner in every sense.
>
> Welcome. I hope you enjoy Python too.
>
>  > What I want to> know now is when I am in Idle and have made a syntax error how do I repair?
> > After the error I can't type in anything and I get this bing noise.
>
>  > Usually I just start idle over again.
>
> You cannot directly repair a line already <enter>ed.

Ok.

> You must enter a new line.

Huh?! I suppose it depends on what you mean by "enter".

> In the command line interpreter, you should be able to hit up
> arrow and have the line above copied to the current entry line for
> correction. In IDLE, this does not yet work,

It doesn't have to. Simply place the cursor on the line you originally
entered and hit <enter>.

> so copy and paste or retype.

The line will be repeated as a new line which you can edit
and make corrections.

>
> For anything too complicated for either of those (more than one line), I
> use (and reuse) a temporary edit file in an edit window. Just make sure
> the file is named <something>.py rather than just <something>. You save
> and run the file with F5. If there is a syntax error, IDLE will say so
> and reopen the cursor window with the cursor at (or after) the location
> of the error. Fix and hit F5 again. Very fast.

Sounds like you're making a mountain out of a molehill. You deserve
a medal if you've been using IDLE without knowing how to edit.

>
> The main thing to watch is that you must say 'print(x)' rather than just
> 'x' to print. File/Recent files lets one easily reopen the tem file (or
> any other of the 20 most recently edited files).
>
> I use the tem file when I copy and paste more than a single line of code
> from, say, a post here.
>
> Terry Jan Reedy