IDLE

源代码：Lib/idlelib/

IDLE 是 Python 所内置的开发与学习环境。

IDLE 具有以下特性：

• 编码于 100% 纯正的 Python，使用名为 tkinter 的图形用户界面工具

• 跨平台：在 Windows、Unix 和 macOS 上工作近似。

• 提供输入输出高亮和错误信息的 Python 命令行窗口 （交互解释器）

• 提供多次撤销操作、Python 语法高亮、智能缩进、函数调用提示、自动补全等功能的多窗口文本编辑器

• 在多个窗口中检索，在编辑器中替换文本，以及在多个文件中检索（通过 grep）

• 提供持久保存的断点调试、单步调试、查看本地和全局命名空间功能的调试器

• 配置、浏览以及其它对话框

目录

IDEL 具有两个主要窗口类型，分别是命令行窗口和编辑器窗口。用户可以同时打开多个编辑器窗口。对于 Windows 和 Linux 平台，都有各自的主菜单。如下记录的每个菜单标识着与之关联的窗口类型。

导出窗口，例如使用 编辑=>在文件中查找 是编辑器窗口的的一个子类型。它们目前有着相同的主菜单，但是默认标题和上下文菜单不同。

On macOS, there is one application menu. It dynamically changes accordingto the window currently selected. It has an IDLE menu, and some entriesdescribed below are moved around to conform to Apple guidelines.

文件菜单 （命令行和编辑器）

• 新建文件

• 创建一个文件编辑器窗口。

• 打开…

• 使用打开窗口以打开一个已存在的文件。

• 近期文件

• 打开一个近期文件列表，选取一个以打开它。

• 打开模块…

• 打开一个已存在的模块 （搜索 sys.path）

• 类浏览器

• 于当前所编辑的文件中使用树形结构展示函数、类以及方法。在命令行中，首先打开一个模块。

• 路径浏览

• 在树状结构中展示 sys.path 目录、模块、函数、类和方法。

• 保存

• 如果文件已经存在，则将当前窗口保存至对应的文件。自打开或上次保存之后经过修改的文件的窗口标题栏首尾将出现星号 * 。如果没有对应的文件，则使用“另存为”代替。

• 保存为…

• 使用“保存为”对话框保存当前窗口。被保存的文件将作为当前窗口新的对应文件。

• 另存为副本…

• 保存当前窗口至另一个文件，而不修改当前对应文件。

• 打印窗口

• 通过默认打印机打印当前窗口。

• 关闭

• 关闭当前窗口（如果未保存则询问）。

• 退出

• 关闭所有窗口并退出 IDLE（如果未保存则询问）

编辑菜单（命令行和编辑器）

• 撤销操作

• 撤销当前窗口的最近一次操作。最高可以撤回 1000 条操作记录。

• 重做

• 重做当前窗口最近一次所撤销的操作。

• 剪切

• 复制选区至系统剪贴板，然后删除选区。

• 复制

• 复制选区至系统剪贴板。

• 粘贴

• 插入系统剪贴板的内容至当前窗口。

剪贴板功能也可用于上下文目录。

• 全选

• 选择当前窗口的全部内容。

• 查找…

• 打开一个提供多选项的查找窗口。

• 再次查找

• 重复上次搜索，如果结果存在。

• 查找选区

• 查找当前选中的字符串，如果存在

• 在文件中查找…

• 打开文件查找对话框。将结果输出至新的输出窗口。

• 替换…

• 打开 查找并替换 对话框。

• 前往行

• 将光标移动至请求的行编号，并使其恢复可见。

• Show Completions

• Open a scrollable list allowing selection of keywords and attributes. SeeCompletions in the Editing and navigation section below.

• 展开文本

• Expand a prefix you have typed to match a full word in the same window;repeat to get a different expansion.

• 显示调用贴士

• After an unclosed parenthesis for a function, open a small window withfunction parameter hints. See Calltips in theEditing and navigation section below.

• Show surrounding parens

• Highlight the surrounding parenthesis.

格式菜单（仅 window 编辑器）

• Indent Region

• Shift selected lines right by the indent width (default 4 spaces).

• Dedent Region

• Shift selected lines left by the indent width (default 4 spaces).

• Comment Out Region

• Insert ## in front of selected lines.

• Uncomment Region

• Remove leading # or ## from selected lines.

• Tabify Region

• Turn leading stretches of spaces into tabs. (Note: We recommend using4 space blocks to indent Python code.)

• Untabify Region

• Turn all tabs into the correct number of spaces.

• Toggle Tabs

• Open a dialog to switch between indenting with spaces and tabs.

• New Indent Width

• Open a dialog to change indent width. The accepted default by the Pythoncommunity is 4 spaces.

• 格式段落

• Reformat the current blank-line-delimited paragraph in comment block ormultiline string or selected line in a string. All lines in theparagraph will be formatted to less than N columns, where N defaults to 72.

• 尾随空格

• Remove trailing space and other whitespace characters after the lastnon-whitespace character of a line by applying str.rstrip to each line,including lines within multiline strings. Except for Shell windows,remove extra newlines at the end of the file.

运行菜单（仅 window 编辑器）

• 运行模块

• Do Check Module. If no error, restart the shell to clean theenvironment, then execute the module. Output is displayed in the Shellwindow. Note that output requires use of print or write.When execution is complete, the Shell retains focus and displays a prompt.At this point, one may interactively explore the result of execution.This is similar to executing a file with python -i file at a commandline.

• Run… Customized

• Same as Run Module, but run the module with customizedsettings. Command Line Arguments extend sys.argv as if passedon a command line. The module can be run in the Shell without restarting.

• 检查模块

• Check the syntax of the module currently open in the Editor window. If themodule has not been saved IDLE will either prompt the user to save orautosave, as selected in the General tab of the Idle Settings dialog. Ifthere is a syntax error, the approximate location is indicated in theEditor window.

• Python Shell

• Open or wake up the Python Shell window.

Shell 菜单（仅 window 编辑器）

• View Last Restart

• Scroll the shell window to the last Shell restart.

• Restart Shell

• Restart the shell to clean the environment.

• 上一条历史记录

• Cycle through earlier commands in history which match the current entry.

• 下一条历史记录

• Cycle through later commands in history which match the current entry.

• 中断执行

• 停止正在运行的程序。

调试菜单（仅 window 编辑器）

• 跳转到文件/行

• Look on the current line. with the cursor, and the line above for a filenameand line number. If found, open the file if not already open, and show theline. Use this to view source lines referenced in an exception tracebackand lines found by Find in Files. Also available in the context menu ofthe Shell window and Output windows.

• 调试器（切换）

• When activated, code entered in the Shell or run from an Editor will rununder the debugger. In the Editor, breakpoints can be set with the contextmenu. This feature is still incomplete and somewhat experimental.

• 堆栈查看器

• Show the stack traceback of the last exception in a tree widget, withaccess to locals and globals.

• 自动打开堆栈查看器

• Toggle automatically opening the stack viewer on an unhandled exception.

选项菜单（命令行和编辑器）

• 配置 IDLE
• Open a configuration dialog and change preferences for the following:fonts, indentation, keybindings, text color themes, startup windows andsize, additional help sources, and extensions. On macOS, open theconfiguration dialog by selecting Preferences in the applicationmenu. For more details, seeSetting preferences under Help and preferences.

Most configuration options apply to all windows or all future windows.The option items below only apply to the active window.

• 显示/隐藏代码上下文（仅 window 编辑器）

• Open a pane at the top of the edit window which shows the block contextof the code which has scrolled above the top of the window. SeeCode Context in the Editing and Navigation sectionbelow.

• 显示/隐藏行号（仅 window 编辑器）

• Open a column to the left of the edit window which shows the numberof each line of text. The default is off, which may be changed in thepreferences (see Setting preferences).

• 缩放/还原高度

• Toggles the window between normal size and maximum height. The initial sizedefaults to 40 lines by 80 chars unless changed on the General tab of theConfigure IDLE dialog. The maximum height for a screen is determined bymomentarily maximizing a window the first time one is zoomed on the screen.Changing screen settings may invalidate the saved height. This toggle hasno effect when a window is maximized.

Window 菜单（命令行和编辑器）

Lists the names of all open windows; select one to bring it to the foreground(deiconifying it if necessary).

帮助菜单（命令行和编辑器）

• 关于 IDLE

• Display version, copyright, license, credits, and more.

• IDLE 帮助

• Display this IDLE document, detailing the menu options, basic editing andnavigation, and other tips.

• Python 文档

• Access local Python documentation, if installed, or start a web browserand open docs.python.org showing the latest Python documentation.

• 海龟演示

• Run the turtledemo module with example Python code and turtle drawings.

Additional help sources may be added here with the Configure IDLE dialog underthe General tab. See the Help sources subsection belowfor more on Help menu choices.

上下文菜单

Open a context menu by right-clicking in a window (Control-click on macOS).Context menus have the standard clipboard functions also on the Edit menu.

• 剪切

• 复制选区至系统剪贴板，然后删除选区。

• 复制

• 复制选区至系统剪贴板。

• 粘贴

• 插入系统剪贴板的内容至当前窗口。

Editor windows also have breakpoint functions. Lines with a breakpoint set arespecially marked. Breakpoints only have an effect when running under thedebugger. Breakpoints for a file are saved in the user's .idlerc directory.

• 设置断点

• 在当前行设置断点

• 清除断点

• 清除当前行断点

Shell and Output windows also have the following.

• 跳转到文件/行
• Same as in Debug menu.

The Shell window also has an output squeezing facility explained in the PythonShell window subsection below.

• 压缩
• If the cursor is over an output line, squeeze all the output betweenthe code above and the prompt below down to a 'Squeezed text' label.

编辑和导航

编辑窗口

IDLE may open editor windows when it starts, depending on settingsand how you start IDLE. Thereafter, use the File menu. There can be onlyone open editor window for a given file.

The title bar contains the name of the file, the full path, and the versionof Python and IDLE running the window. The status bar contains the linenumber ('Ln') and column number ('Col'). Line numbers start with 1;column numbers with 0.

IDLE assumes that files with a known .py* extension contain Python codeand that other files do not. Run Python code with the Run menu.

按键绑定

In this section, 'C' refers to the Control key on Windows and Unix andthe Command key on macOS.

• Backspace deletes to the left; Del deletes to the right

• C-Backspace delete word left; C-Del delete word to the right

• Arrow keys and Page Up/Page Down to move around

• C-LeftArrow and C-RightArrow moves by words

• Home/End go to begin/end of line

• C-Home/C-End go to begin/end of file

• Some useful Emacs bindings are inherited from Tcl/Tk:

• C-a 行首

• C-e 行尾

• C-k 删除行（但未将其放入剪贴板）

• C-l center window around the insertion point

• C-b go backward one character without deleting (usually you canalso use the cursor key for this)

• C-f go forward one character without deleting (usually you canalso use the cursor key for this)

• C-p go up one line (usually you can also use the cursor key forthis)

• C-d delete next character

Standard keybindings (like C-c to copy and C-v to paste)may work. Keybindings are selected in the Configure IDLE dialog.

自动缩进

After a block-opening statement, the next line is indented by 4 spaces (in thePython Shell window by one tab). After certain keywords (break, return etc.)the next line is dedented. In leading indentation, Backspace deletes upto 4 spaces if they are there. Tab inserts spaces (in the PythonShell window one tab), number depends on Indent width. Currently, tabsare restricted to four spaces due to Tcl/Tk limitations.

See also the indent/dedent region commands on theFormat menu.

完成

Completions are supplied for functions, classes, and attributes of classes,both built-in and user-defined. Completions are also provided forfilenames.

The AutoCompleteWindow (ACW) will open after a predefined delay (default istwo seconds) after a '.' or (in a string) an os.sep is typed. If after oneof those characters (plus zero or more other characters) a tab is typedthe ACW will open immediately if a possible continuation is found.

If there is only one possible completion for the characters entered, aTab will supply that completion without opening the ACW.

'Show Completions' will force open a completions window, by default theC-space will open a completions window. In an emptystring, this will contain the files in the current directory. On ablank line, it will contain the built-in and user-defined functions andclasses in the current namespaces, plus any modules imported. If somecharacters have been entered, the ACW will attempt to be more specific.

If a string of characters is typed, the ACW selection will jump to theentry most closely matching those characters. Entering a tab willcause the longest non-ambiguous match to be entered in the Editor window orShell. Two tab in a row will supply the current ACW selection, aswill return or a double click. Cursor keys, Page Up/Down, mouse selection,and the scroll wheel all operate on the ACW.

"Hidden" attributes can be accessed by typing the beginning of hiddenname after a '.', e.g. ''. This allows access to modules with_all set, or to class-private attributes.

Completions and the 'Expand Word' facility can save a lot of typing!

Completions are currently limited to those in the namespaces. Names inan Editor window which are not via main and sys.modules willnot be found. Run the module once with your imports to correct this situation.Note that IDLE itself places quite a few modules in sys.modules, somuch can be found by default, e.g. the re module.

If you don't like the ACW popping up unbidden, simply make the delaylonger or disable the extension.

提示

A calltip is shown when one types ( after the name of an _accessible_function. A name expression may include dots and subscripts. A calltipremains until it is clicked, the cursor is moved out of the argument area,or ) is typed. When the cursor is in the argument part of a definition,the menu or shortcut display a calltip.

A calltip consists of the function signature and the first line of thedocstring. For builtins without an accessible signature, the calltipconsists of all lines up the fifth line or the first blank line. Thesedetails may change.

The set of accessible functions depends on what modules have been importedinto the user process, including those imported by Idle itself,and what definitions have been run, all since the last restart.

For example, restart the Shell and enter itertools.count(. A calltipappears because Idle imports itertools into the user process for its own use.(This could change.) Enter turtle.write( and nothing appears. Idle doesnot import turtle. The menu or shortcut do nothing either. Enterimport turtle and then turtle.write( will work.

In an editor, import statements have no effect until one runs the file. Onemight want to run a file after writing the import statements at the top,or immediately run an existing file before editing.

代码上下文

Within an editor window containing Python code, code context can be toggledin order to show or hide a pane at the top of the window. When shown, thispane freezes the opening lines for block code, such as those beginning withclass, def, or if keywords, that would have otherwise scrolledout of view. The size of the pane will be expanded and contracted as neededto show the all current levels of context, up to the maximum number oflines defined in the Configure IDLE dialog (which defaults to 15). If thereare no current context lines and the feature is toggled on, a single blankline will display. Clicking on a line in the context pane will move thatline to the top of the editor.

The text and background colors for the context pane can be configured underthe Highlights tab in the Configure IDLE dialog.

Python Shell 窗口

With IDLE's Shell, one enters, edits, and recalls complete statements.Most consoles and terminals only work with a single physical line at a time.

When one pastes code into Shell, it is not compiled and possibly executeduntil one hits Return. One may edit pasted code first.If one pastes more that one statement into Shell, the result will be aSyntaxError when multiple statements are compiled as if they were one.

The editing features described in previous subsections work when enteringcode interactively. IDLE's Shell window also responds to the following keys.

• C-c interrupts executing command

• C-d sends end-of-file; closes window if typed at a >>> prompt

• Alt-/ (Expand word) is also useful to reduce typing

历史命令

• Alt-p retrieves previous command matching what you have typed. OnmacOS use C-p.

• Alt-n retrieves next. On macOS use C-n.

• Return while on any previous command retrieves that command

文本颜色

Idle defaults to black on white text, but colors text with special meanings.For the shell, these are shell output, shell error, user output, anduser error. For Python code, at the shell prompt or in an editor, these arekeywords, builtin class and function names, names following class anddef, strings, and comments. For any text window, these are the cursor (whenpresent), found text (when possible), and selected text.

Text coloring is done in the background, so uncolorized text is occasionallyvisible. To change the color scheme, use the Configure IDLE dialogHighlighting tab. The marking of debugger breakpoint lines in the editor andtext in popups and dialogs is not user-configurable.

启动和代码执行

Upon startup with the -s option, IDLE will execute the file referenced bythe environment variables IDLESTARTUP or PYTHONSTARTUP.IDLE first checks for IDLESTARTUP; if IDLESTARTUP is present the filereferenced is run. If IDLESTARTUP is not present, IDLE checks forPYTHONSTARTUP. Files referenced by these environment variables areconvenient places to store functions that are used frequently from the IDLEshell, or for executing import statements to import common modules.

In addition, Tk also loads a startup file if it is present. Note that theTk file is loaded unconditionally. This additional file is .Idle.py and islooked for in the user's home directory. Statements in this file will beexecuted in the Tk namespace, so this file is not useful for importingfunctions to be used from IDLE's Python shell.

命令行语法

idle.py [-c command] [-d] [-e] [-h] [-i] [-r file] [-s] [-t title] [-] [arg] ...
 
-c command  run command in the shell window
-d          enable debugger and open shell window
-e          open editor window
-h          print help message with legal combinations and exit
-i          open shell window
-r file     run file in shell window
-s          run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP first, in shell window
-t title    set title of shell window
-           run stdin in shell (- must be last option before args)

如果有参数：

• If -, -c, or r is used, all arguments are placed insys.argv[1:…] and sys.argv[0] is set to '', '-c',or '-r'. No editor window is opened, even if that is the defaultset in the Options dialog.

• Otherwise, arguments are files opened for editing andsys.argv reflects the arguments passed to IDLE itself.

启动失败

IDLE uses a socket to communicate between the IDLE GUI process and the usercode execution process. A connection must be established whenever the Shellstarts or restarts. (The latter is indicated by a divider line that says'RESTART'). If the user process fails to connect to the GUI process, itdisplays a Tk error box with a 'cannot connect' message that directs theuser here. It then exits.

A common cause of failure is a user-written file with the same name as astandard library module, such as random.py and tkinter.py. When such afile is located in the same directory as a file that is about to be run,IDLE cannot import the stdlib file. The current fix is to rename theuser file.

Though less common than in the past, an antivirus or firewall program maystop the connection. If the program cannot be taught to allow theconnection, then it must be turned off for IDLE to work. It is safe toallow this internal connection because no data is visible on externalports. A similar problem is a network mis-configuration that blocksconnections.

Python installation issues occasionally stop IDLE: multiple versions canclash, or a single installation might need admin access. If one undo theclash, or cannot or does not want to run as admin, it might be easiest tocompletely remove Python and start over.

A zombie pythonw.exe process could be a problem. On Windows, use TaskManager to detect and stop one. Sometimes a restart initiated by a programcrash or Keyboard Interrupt (control-C) may fail to connect. Dismissingthe error box or Restart Shell on the Shell menu may fix a temporary problem.

When IDLE first starts, it attempts to read user configuration files in~/.idlerc/ (~ is one's home directory). If there is a problem, an errormessage should be displayed. Leaving aside random disk glitches, this canbe prevented by never editing the files by hand, using the configurationdialog, under Options, instead Options. Once it happens, the solution maybe to delete one or more of the configuration files.

If IDLE quits with no message, and it was not started from a console, trystarting from a console (python -m idlelib) and see if a message appears.

运行用户代码

With rare exceptions, the result of executing Python code with IDLE isintended to be the same as executing the same code by the default method,directly with Python in a text-mode system console or terminal window.However, the different interface and operation occasionally affectvisible results. For instance, sys.modules starts with more entries,and threading.activeCount() returns 2 instead of 1.

By default, IDLE runs user code in a separate OS process rather than inthe user interface process that runs the shell and editor. In the executionprocess, it replaces sys.stdin, sys.stdout, and sys.stderrwith objects that get input from and send output to the Shell window.The original values stored in sys.stdin, sys.stdout, andsys.stderr are not touched, but may be None.

When Shell has the focus, it controls the keyboard and screen. This isnormally transparent, but functions that directly access the keyboardand screen will not work. These include system-specific functions thatdetermine whether a key has been pressed and if so, which.

IDLE's standard stream replacements are not inherited by subprocessescreated in the execution process, whether directly by user code or by modulessuch as multiprocessing. If such subprocess use input from sys.stdinor print or write to sys.stdout or sys.stderr,IDLE should be started in a command line window. The secondary subprocesswill then be attached to that window for input and output.

The IDLE code running in the execution process adds frames to the call stackthat would not be there otherwise. IDLE wraps sys.getrecursionlimit andsys.setrecursionlimit to reduce the effect of the additional stack frames.

If sys is reset by user code, such as with importlib.reload(sys),IDLE's changes are lost and input from the keyboard and output to the screenwill not work correctly.

When user code raises SystemExit either directly or by calling sys.exit, IDLEreturns to a Shell prompt instead of exiting.

User output in Shell

When a program outputs text, the result is determined by thecorresponding output device. When IDLE executes user code, sys.stdoutand sys.stderr are connected to the display area of IDLE's Shell. Some ofits features are inherited from the underlying Tk Text widget. Othersare programmed additions. Where it matters, Shell is designed for developmentrather than production runs.

For instance, Shell never throws away output. A program that sends unlimitedoutput to Shell will eventually fill memory, resulting in a memory error.In contrast, some system text windows only keep the last n lines of output.A Windows console, for instance, keeps a user-settable 1 to 9999 lines,with 300 the default.

A Tk Text widget, and hence IDLE's Shell, displays characters (codepoints) inthe BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane) subset of Unicode. Which characters aredisplayed with a proper glyph and which with a replacement box depends on theoperating system and installed fonts. Tab characters cause the following textto begin after the next tab stop. (They occur every 8 'characters'). Newlinecharacters cause following text to appear on a new line. Other controlcharacters are ignored or displayed as a space, box, or something else,depending on the operating system and font. (Moving the text cursor throughsuch output with arrow keys may exhibit some surprising spacing behavior.)

>>> s = 'a\tb\a<\x02><\r>\bc\nd'  # Enter 22 chars.
>>> len(s)
14
>>> s  # Display repr(s)
'a\tb\x07<\x02><\r>\x08c\nd'
>>> print(s, end='')  # Display s as is.
# Result varies by OS and font.  Try it.

The repr function is used for interactive echo of expressionvalues. It returns an altered version of the input string in whichcontrol codes, some BMP codepoints, and all non-BMP codepoints arereplaced with escape codes. As demonstrated above, it allows one toidentify the characters in a string, regardless of how they are displayed.

Normal and error output are generally kept separate (on separate lines)from code input and each other. They each get different highlight colors.

For SyntaxError tracebacks, the normal '^' marking where the error wasdetected is replaced by coloring the text with an error highlight.When code run from a file causes other exceptions, one may right clickon a traceback line to jump to the corresponding line in an IDLE editor.The file will be opened if necessary.

Shell has a special facility for squeezing output lines down to a'Squeezed text' label. This is done automaticallyfor output over N lines (N = 50 by default).N can be changed in the PyShell section of the Generalpage of the Settings dialog. Output with fewer lines can be squeezed byright clicking on the output. This can be useful lines long enough to slowdown scrolling.

Squeezed output is expanded in place by double-clicking the label.It can also be sent to the clipboard or a separate view window byright-clicking the label.

开发 tkinter 应用程序

IDLE is intentionally different from standard Python in order tofacilitate development of tkinter programs. Enter import tkinter as tk;root = tk.Tk() in standard Python and nothing appears. Enter the samein IDLE and a tk window appears. In standard Python, one must also enterroot.update() to see the window. IDLE does the equivalent in thebackground, about 20 times a second, which is about every 50 milliseconds.Next enter b = tk.Button(root, text='button'); b.pack(). Again,nothing visibly changes in standard Python until one enters root.update().

Most tkinter programs run root.mainloop(), which usually does notreturn until the tk app is destroyed. If the program is run withpython -i or from an IDLE editor, a >>> shell prompt does notappear until mainloop() returns, at which time there is nothing leftto interact with.

When running a tkinter program from an IDLE editor, one can comment outthe mainloop call. One then gets a shell prompt immediately and caninteract with the live application. One just has to remember tore-enable the mainloop call when running in standard Python.

Running without a subprocess

By default, IDLE executes user code in a separate subprocess via a socket,which uses the internal loopback interface. This connection is notexternally visible and no data is sent to or received from the Internet.If firewall software complains anyway, you can ignore it.

If the attempt to make the socket connection fails, Idle will notify you.Such failures are sometimes transient, but if persistent, the problemmay be either a firewall blocking the connection or misconfiguration ofa particular system. Until the problem is fixed, one can run Idle withthe -n command line switch.

If IDLE is started with the -n command line switch it will run in asingle process and will not create the subprocess which runs the RPCPython execution server. This can be useful if Python cannot createthe subprocess or the RPC socket interface on your platform. However,in this mode user code is not isolated from IDLE itself. Also, theenvironment is not restarted when Run/Run Module (F5) is selected. Ifyour code has been modified, you must reload() the affected modules andre-import any specific items (e.g. from foo import baz) if the changesare to take effect. For these reasons, it is preferable to run IDLEwith the default subprocess if at all possible.

3.4 版后已移除.

帮助和偏好

Help sources

Help menu entry "IDLE Help" displays a formatted html version of theIDLE chapter of the Library Reference. The result, in a read-onlytkinter text window, is close to what one sees in a web browser.Navigate through the text with a mousewheel,the scrollbar, or up and down arrow keys held down.Or click the TOC (Table of Contents) button and select a sectionheader in the opened box.

Help menu entry "Python Docs" opens the extensive sources of help,including tutorials, available at docs.python.org/x.y, where 'x.y'is the currently running Python version. If your systemhas an off-line copy of the docs (this may be an installation option),that will be opened instead.

Selected URLs can be added or removed from the help menu at any time using theGeneral tab of the Configure IDLE dialog .

偏好设定

The font preferences, highlighting, keys, and general preferences can bechanged via Configure IDLE on the Option menu.Non-default user settings are saved in a .idlerc directory in the user'shome directory. Problems caused by bad user configuration files are solvedby editing or deleting one or more of the files in .idlerc.

On the Font tab, see the text sample for the effect of font face and sizeon multiple characters in multiple languages. Edit the sample to addother characters of personal interest. Use the sample to selectmonospaced fonts. If particular characters have problems in Shell or aneditor, add them to the top of the sample and try changing first sizeand then font.

On the Highlights and Keys tab, select a built-in or custom color themeand key set. To use a newer built-in color theme or key set with olderIDLEs, save it as a new custom theme or key set and it well be accessibleto older IDLEs.

macOS 上的IDLE

Under System Preferences: Dock, one can set "Prefer tabs when openingdocuments" to "Always". This setting is not compatible with the tk/tkinterGUI framework used by IDLE, and it breaks a few IDLE features.

扩展

IDLE contains an extension facility. Preferences for extensions can bechanged with the Extensions tab of the preferences dialog. See thebeginning of config-extensions.def in the idlelib directory for furtherinformation. The only current default extension is zzdummy, an examplealso used for testing.