IDLE: "help" is missing from the sign-on message

[matrixise]

BPO	33856
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @stevendaprano, @zware, @matrixise, @ammaraskar, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-33856: Add "help" in the welcome message of IDLE #7755 [3.7] bpo-33856: Add "help" to the welcome message of IDLE (GH-7755) #7756 [3.6] bpo-33856: Add "help" to the welcome message of IDLE (GH-7755) #7757 [2.7] bpo-33856: Add "help" to the welcome message of IDLE (GH-7755) #7758

^{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 2018-06-16.22:15:55.830>
created_at = <Date 2018-06-14.07:43:06.015>
labels = ['3.8', 'expert-IDLE', 'type-bug', '3.7']
title = 'IDLE: "help" is missing from the sign-on message'
updated_at = <Date 2018-06-16.22:15:55.829>
user = 'https://github.com/matrixise'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-06-16.22:15:55.829>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'terry.reedy'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2018-06-16.22:15:55.830>
closer = 'terry.reedy'
components = ['IDLE']
creation = <Date 2018-06-14.07:43:06.015>
creator = 'matrixise'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 33856
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 11.0
messages = ['319504', '319776', '319777', '319778', '319780', '319782', '319788', '319789', '319790', '319791', '319792']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'steven.daprano', 'zach.ware', 'matrixise', 'ammar2', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['7755', '7756', '7757', '7758']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue33856'
versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8']

[stevendaprano]

What do you mean "type help"?

help() is added by the site module, if you've done something to skip running the site module it won't be added.

Can you give an example of what you are trying to do, what happens and what you expected?

Are you running in IDLE or the regular REPL?

[matrixise]

Hi Steven,

On Thursday, I gave a python training with some Windows computers and I have executer python, just the REPL, normally, you have

Python 3.6.5 (default, Apr 4 2018, 15:01:18)
[GCC 7.3.1 2018030 (Red Hat 7.3.1-5)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>

But I didn't see the message with "help" in the prompt on the Windows computer. I would like to confirm with the standard bundle of python.org but I don't have a windows computer. and I didn't check the author of this bundle, but it was the 3.6.x version.

[ammaraskar]

Can't recreate from latest Python 3.6.5 downloaded off python.org

> D:\Python365\python.exe
Python 3.6.5 (v3.6.5:f59c0932b4, Mar 28 2018, 16:07:46) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

[zware]

I suspect you either had a non-python.org version of Python, or had the embeddable distribution rather than a proper installation (the embeddable distribution should not be used unless you're embedding, hence the name :)). Either way, the standard distribution started normally imports site by default, which monkeypatches help into builtins on all platforms.

[matrixise]

Hi Zach, in fact, it's not a problem with Python itself, but with Idle.

I just downloaded a virtualbox image via (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/) and started the installation of Python 3.6.5

and when you execute IDLE, "help()" is not present, but this sentence is present in the prompt of python3.

I am going to provide a small patch.

[matrixise]

PR proposed

[terryjreedy]

New changeset 9d49f85 by Terry Jan Reedy (Stéphane Wirtel) in branch 'master':
bpo-33856: Add "help" to the welcome message of IDLE (GH-7755)
9d49f85

[terryjreedy]

Thanks for the clarification.

>> help works

but is not in the sign-on message, even though it is by far the most important item mentioned. I just merged to master.