IDLE (Python)

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IDLE

IDLE in action under Windows: text editor with syntax highlight and interactive shell
Latest release 1.2.2 / 21 February 2008
OS Cross-platform
Genre Integrated development environment
Website http://www.python.org/idle

IDLE is an Integrated DeveLopment Environment for Python, which is bundled in each release of the programming tool since 2.3. It is completely written in Python and the Tkinter GUI toolkit (wrapper functions for Tcl/Tk).

According to the included README, its main features are:

  • Multi-window text editor with syntax highlighting, autocompletion, smart indent and other.
  • Python shell with syntax highlighting.
  • Integrated debugger with stepping, persistent breakpoints, and call stack visibility.

Python is named after the British comedy group Monty Python. Therefore, the name IDLE can be seen as an allusion to Eric Idle, one of the group’s founding members. See also the Eric Python IDE, which could be such an allusion, too.

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