Redirecting input of IDLE window

[Terry Reedy]

A better subject line would have been
Redirecting output interactive help(ob).

On 8/14/2017 4:47 AM, Friedrich Rentsch wrote:

>      I work interactively in an IDLE window most of the time and find 
> "help (...)" very useful to summarize things. The display comes up 
> directly (doesn't return a text, which I could edit, assign or store). I 
> suspect that there are ways to redirect the display, say to a file. 

Help is added to the global namespace by importing 'site', which is done 
by default (but can be suppressed).  You could suggest on the tracker 
that it be given a 'file=' option.

I have already thought about expanding the help options for IDLE.

1. Put output in a separate editor window, so it does not get in the way 
of interactive work.  Once that is done it could be edited and saved. 
But: should this be optional?  If so, how to invoke the option?  I have 
been waiting until we have tabbed windows, at which point, always 
putting help output on a new tab would be sensible.

2. Help uses pydoc, which can produce html output. Render that instead 
of plain text in a separate editor window (as down now with IDLE help).

> Thanks for suggestions.

Currently, you can copy and paste into a fresh editor window.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy