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IDLE: Show help(object) output in a text viewer #81949
Description
| BPO | 37768 |
|---|---|
| Nosy | @rhettinger, @terryjreedy, @taleinat |
| PRs |
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/taleinat'
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2019-08-05.20:56:06.543>
labels = ['3.8', 'expert-IDLE', 'type-feature', '3.7', '3.9']
title = 'IDLE: Show help(object) output in a text viewer'
updated_at = <Date 2021-06-06.15:28:24.396>
user = 'https://github.com/taleinat'bugs.python.org fields:
activity = <Date 2021-06-06.15:28:24.396>
actor = 'taleinat'
assignee = 'taleinat'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['IDLE']
creation = <Date 2019-08-05.20:56:06.543>
creator = 'taleinat'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 37768
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['349073', '349075', '349076', '351059', '351065']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'terry.reedy', 'taleinat']
pr_nums = ['15140', '26561']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue37768'
versions = ['Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8', 'Python 3.9']Metadata
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taleinat commentedon Aug 5, 2019
Currently, IDLE just writes the entire help message into the shell.
If auto-squeezing is enabled, then long help messages are automatically squeezed, following which the help text can be viewed in a text viewer or expanded inline. This is still not great UX.
I propose to simply have help(object) open a text viewer with the help text. There's actually an old (2007) comment in Lib\idlelib\pyshell.py by KBK that this should be done.
See related discussion in issue bpo-35855.
taleinat commentedon Aug 5, 2019
See PR #59345.
taleinat commentedon Aug 5, 2019
Raymond, I'm interested in your opinion on this.
terryjreedy commentedon Sep 3, 2019
For myself, I only want this for 'large' outputs. I prefer something like the following left alone.
continue_stmt ::= "continue"
"continue" may only occur syntactically nested in a "for" or "while"
loop, but not nested in a function or class definition within that
loop. It continues with the next cycle of the nearest enclosing loop.
When "continue" passes control out of a "try" statement with a
"finally" clause, that "finally" clause is executed before really
starting the next loop cycle.
Related help topics: while, for
The threshhold for squeezer should be good enough. I think of this as autosqueeze + autoexpand if this if the first output after '>>>' and the statement began with 'help('. An advantage of doing it this way is that the squeezer button remains after dismissing the viewer.
Also, I suspect that most people who disable squeezer would not like this either.
terryjreedy commentedon Sep 3, 2019
I should have said, 'who disable autosqueeze'. Anyway, an option to disable help autoview will make me more comfortable adding it.
A similar change would be to add 'Squeeze & View' to the context menu.