Newbie here. Just installed Python 3.8, and started reading a book on Python. The statement was made that IDLe is a GUI, and I should be able to use that to play with Python. When I start IDLE, all I see is a dos-like shell, with Python entry characters >>>>. So, what am I not understanding, and how do I get to a GUI for entering code or looking around?
I do understand use of Notepad++ and can use that.
Thanks for any help! Will undoubtedly be needed often...
Choose File -> New File in Idle's menu to open an editor window. When your code is ready, press F5 to execute.
OK got it. Just not what I expected. Thx!
Are you confusing GUI with IDE?
If so, might suggest installing Anaconda and using either Spyder for a more classical IDE (panels for output, code, and variable inspection) or Jupyter Lab which uses a notebook interface.
Thanks. may check them out but can continue at idle level. i'm used to ms access where gui is king!
For a better experience with Idle, you can install
Idlex.
Output:
python -m pip install idlex
It enhances Idle with basic things such as line numbers in the editor... Don't forget to start "idlex" instead of "idle" after the installation.
Note @
Ron38 I use Notepad++ for all my python3.7/pyqt5 coding (being an old school programmer) and while there are various IDEs out there I of come to find they each have their own little quirks you end up having to deal with -- so far I think my students have all gravitated to either the VS IDE or Thonny as being the least quirky. But if you are comfortable with using Notepad++ for coding and Terminal emulator for running your code (I use ConEmu rather clean and nicer than a straight command line interface) then I would just go with that. Everything has its pros/cons and all you need to do is figure out what works best for you