[Python-ideas] improve Idle

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 13 May 2013 10:57:43 -0400
Jim Jewett <jimjjewett at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 1:16 PM, Terry Jan Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> > On 5/10/2013 8:52 AM, Todd V. Rovito wrote:
> >> On May 10, 2013, at 5:36 AM, Alexandre Boulay
> >> <alexandre.boulay59 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >>> I think that could be a good idea to put colored  dots on idle's
> >>> scroll bar for each def or class created,  each got its own color,
> 
> > I cannot really understand what you are proposing. The scroll bar is for
> > scrolling, and it has the arrow buttons and the bar itself that would
> > interfere with placing dots. Furthermore, scroll bars are widgets defined by
> > tk and as far as I know, IDLE has no control over the detailed appearance.
> 
> I suspect he is suggesting that the scrollbar represent position in
> the file in terms of "3 top level classes above, 2 below" instead of
> just by line count.  This sounds straightforward as an overlay
> graphic.
> 
> Perhaps even changing the navigation so that clicking on the scrollbar
> at 1/3 of the way down will move you to 1/3 of the way down the file,
> instead of "one page up from where you current are."  This would no
> longer be a standard scrollbar, but it might well be better.

I wouldn't want to disturb an Idle discussion, but changing the
behaviour of standard widgets is most often a terrible idea (unless
perhaps you're an UI wizard). You shouldn't do it.

Regards

Antoine.