[Idle-dev] new idlefork package

[Bruce Sherwood]

[Guido van Rossum]
> Now that all output goes to the Python Shell window, I'd like to see a
> delimiter in that window whenever the subprocess is restarted.
> Otherwise it's not always clear from viewing that window what
> happened.

I too would like to see this. Maybe "-----------" or "********". Often one
will want to search backwards for the previous delimiter to see the start of
the run. Maybe given the high utility of this, there should be a specific
menu option (and key binding) to back up to the most recent delimiter.

> This sounds like it's an issue with VPython's main loop.  Maybe it
> doesn't exit its main loop when its graphics window is closed?

There are two cases, at least in terms of user interface. Very often a
VPython program is an infinite loop, as in the example of a bunch of stars
orbiting each other forever. And even when a VPython program runs to
completion, the graphics windows remain alive for viewing and for inspection
by zooming/rotating with the mouse. When however you close a graphics
window, Visual shuts down. I don't know the details of how this is done, but
I stress that with the original idlefork what happened was that I didn't
have any problems. Maybe it is simply a matter of changing the signals sent
by Visual to whoever spawned the program (in this case, idlefork)? Or is it
that the new idlefork isn't looking for such signals?

> I'm not sure if IDLEfork has a way to kill an uncooperative
> subprocess; it should have one as a last resort.  Also, ^C in the
> shell window should send it something like SIGINT (on Unix).

I couldn't find any way to kill the program and/or shell other than going to
the system monitor. There definitely needs to be a menu option or something.

Bruce Sherwood