Add turtledemo to IDLE menu

[rhettinger]

BPO	17172
Nosy	@rhettinger, @terryjreedy, @kbkaiser, @ronaldoussoren, @orsenthil, @ned-deily, @ezio-melotti
Dependencies	bpo-21597: Allow turtledemo code pane to get wider. bpo-21823: Catch turtle.Terminator exceptions in turtledemo bpo-21824: Make turtledemo 2.7 help show file contents, not file name.
Files	issue.patch issue.patch turtle_demo.patch turtle_demo_v2.patch turtle_demo_v3.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/terryjreedy'
closed_at = <Date 2014-07-29.02:41:07.634>
created_at = <Date 2013-02-09.20:32:46.152>
labels = ['expert-IDLE', 'type-feature']
title = 'Add turtledemo to IDLE menu'
updated_at = <Date 2014-07-29.02:41:18.094>
user = 'https://github.com/rhettinger'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2014-07-29.02:41:18.094>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'terry.reedy'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2014-07-29.02:41:07.634>
closer = 'terry.reedy'
components = ['IDLE']
creation = <Date 2013-02-09.20:32:46.152>
creator = 'rhettinger'
dependencies = ['21597', '21823', '21824']
files = ['29048', '35328', '35383', '36081', '36121']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 17172
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 35.0
messages = ['181757', '181780', '181781', '181954', '181955', '182160', '182208', '192929', '218983', '219026', '219064', '219237', '219243', '219245', '219246', '219252', '219318', '219330', '219538', '220413', '221220', '222815', '223913', '224026', '224091', '224098', '224154', '224161', '224176', '224181', '224206', '224209', '224213', '224214', '224215']
nosy_count = 11.0
nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'terry.reedy', 'kbk', 'ronaldoussoren', 'orsenthil', 'ned.deily', 'ezio.melotti', 'jesstess', 'python-dev', 'Ramchandra Apte', 'Lita.Cho']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue17172'
versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.4', 'Python 3.5']

[rhettinger]

The turtledemo is an on-ramp for younger programmers and we should make it easy to launch.

[RamchandraApte]

Will attach patch. Coincidentally I'm am a younger programmer.

[RamchandraApte]

Should be "... I'm a younger..."

[RamchandraApte]

Attached is a patch. I hope the File menu is the right place for this. I had to move the code in Lib/turtledemo.py after "if __name__ ==..." into main().

[RamchandraApte]

Should this be added to Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt ?

[ezio-melotti]

I left a comment in rietveld.

I hope the File menu is the right place for this.

I think that's the best place where to put it.

I had to move the code in Lib/turtledemo.py after "if __name__ ==..." into main().

Why?

Should this be added to Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt ?

Yes.

[RamchandraApte]

Because turtledemo doesn't have a main() function. I moved the code under 'if __name__ == "__main__"' into a main() function.

[rhettinger]

Ezio, would you like to take it from here?

[LitaCho]

I tested the patch and it looks correct upon inspection. It looks like it applies cleanly and a straight forward solution.

I made a slight change so that when the Demo exits, it has a better message. I also added the change to the NEWS.txt file.

I also ran the IDLE tests, and everything passed. I didn't see new tests added, but I am not sure if that is needed, since we are just adding a menu binding.

I've attached my patch with the changes listed above. It should be ready for review.

[terryjreedy]

My thoughts on this. Overall, +.something (and increasing as I look at it more ;-).

I am opposed to adding this to the relatively long file menu. It has nothing to do with manipulating or editing files. If it is to go in, please put it on the help menu, at least for now, as the intention is to somehow help beginners. If we ever add a demo section or submenu to the Help menu or Demo to the top-level level menu, we can move this.

Any patch should be applied to both 3.4 and 3.5. Turtledemo apparently does not exist in 2.7.

Idle NEWS items first go into the Idle section of the regular NEWS file. They are supposed to be copied into the idlelib/NEWS with each release. That has sometimes happened but not always. (I should open separate issue to fix both the idlelib files and the procedure.) In any case, NEWS entries should not be added to a patch until it is about to be committed. Otherwise, merge conflicts are possible or even likely.

With the main code in turtledemo.__main__ wrapped in a function, we could pass an 'idle' argument so that the demo could modify its behavior when run from Idle. I mention a possibility below.

The patch runs turtledemo within the Idle process. It might be better to run it in a separate subprocess:
python -c "from turtledemo.__main__ import main; main('idle')"
One reason, aside from not leaving all the imports around, is that 3 of the demos print to console.

• When clock is stopped, a traceback is printed; this in mentioned in a tracker issue (and should be fixed).
• Penrose prints each info about each round; this text could/should be put in a popup text window.
• Tree prints '1024'; this could be eliminated or put on the status bar under the text window, as another demo does.

When Idle is run windowless with pythonw on Windows, attempts to print to the non-existent console crash the process. There have been several bug issues about this. The current patch should not be pushed with turtledemo as is unless tested with installed 3.4.1 by hand-patching idlelib. Or, all console prints should be eliminated.

However, a future addition to turtledemo could create a problem. That is why I think it better that only idlelib code run within the idle process.

I am bothered a bit that there is little relationship between Idle and turtledemo. Both using tkinter seems not too relevant. That both tend to be used by less experienced Python users seems a bit thin. The relationship would be stronger if there were other demos (which I would like) or if there were option in the demo to load the code for a particular example into an Idle editor window. (Each demo will run independently in an Idle user process - text output, including tracebacks resulting from ungracefully closing an example before it is done, appears in the Shell window.)

[LitaCho]

I did not know that NEWS items should not be edited unless it is about to be committed. The previous comments suggested to put it in. Thank you for the feedback.

I can move the Turtle Demp into the Help Menu rather than the File menu. I agree that it seems out of place. I can also make it such that it runs the demo as an external process rather than within IDLE. That way, it is completely separate by IDLE and we don't create a dependency.

I think if we were to load in future demos, they could be run as other processes rather than within IDLE, so that future additions don't end up crashing IDLE.