Well, I just read through everyone's posts, and I found about what I expected. It took me a while to really understand what I was doing with the interface, I'm still not sure I completely understand it. . . But I'll give some ideas.
OK, first of all, when using IDLE there are 2 parts you have to think about. First is the basic interface you see first when you open the program. This interface allows you to run single commands, and test new things.
The other interface is more like a text editor, but with formatting and allows you to create and save modules (files). To get it open, go to file and new window. Now you can create your hello world program and save it to a file for later access.
To access and run the file you've created there are a couple of options:
The easiest one of these is to go to the run menu and select 'run module' (or hit f5)
We'll worry about other methods later, for now this should allow you to create and run files.
Another thing you may have noticed is that programs that have been shown have a couple of lines before the print command that don't seem to do anything, these are comments. These comments are not completely necessary, but have reasons. The first line should be:
"#! c:/python24/python -this line contains the directory of the interpreter
The second line should include the filename:
# helloworld.py
We'll also use comments in other places, but these are not necessary for as simply a program as we are creating now.
For your assignment today I'd like you to create a program that prints a splash screen (welcome screen). It should be at least 12 lines, though it can also include a couple blank lines. Try to make this welcome screen somewhat graphical and not just text (use symbols to draw it).
Once you have the program completed, please also read over:
GvR chapter 18
HtTlaCS chapter 2
BoP section 4
Please paste your program into your post for today. Also include any other comments about struggles you are having with the IDLE interface. And questions or comments from today's reading.
Have fun! Oh, and go to whittakersingapore.blogspot.com for pictures!