Interactive development in Python à la Smalltalk?

[Bienlein]

Hello,

I'm absolutely new to Python, just looked at the language description for the first time. The first thought that came to my mind was whether you can program  in Python in an interactive programming style, i.e. I can change code in the debugger which becomes immediately effective (no edit-compile loop) and I can also send messages to objects visible inside the debugger. 

Then Python could become my replacemenet for my dearly missed Smalltalk, which to my great grief meanwhile really has become quite dead, I fear. In Smalltalk you can open up an inspector window (e.g. you don't have to get into debug mode), inspect objects in it and evaluate code in it, send messaages to objects. I guess this cannot be done in Python out of the box. But if changes made in the debugger became immediately effective, this would be interactive enough for my purposes.

Thanks, Bienlein