python3 on mac-mavericks (was trying idle)

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 1:04 AM, MRAB <python at mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
> In Macland it's called the terminal emulator:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_%28OS_X%29

To be strictly correct, the "shell" would be the thing you run that
gives you a prompt, and the "terminal emulator" would be the thing you
run that gives you a black box on your GUI. On my Linux box here
(Debian Wheezy with Xfce), I use xfce4-terminal as my terminal
emulator, and bash as my shell. You could alternatively use
gnome-terminal, or you could use csh for your shell, or whatever
strikes your fancy. Macs are no different here; they have a terminal
emulator (which is usually just called "Terminal" aiui), and a shell
(usually bash, though not quite the bash I know from my systems -
maybe a different version).

It's Windows that is the oddball. You can't easily find the terminal
emulator, though it does have one. People think of "running cmd.exe"
to get a "shell", which in reality is both a terminal and a shell
inside that terminal. But ultimately, it's still the same.

ChrisA