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Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

thonny.org

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Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#51

Post by graphpapa »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #49
mstolpm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume you are not working in education? Of course, PyCharm has great features and you don't need to use all of them when working with the IDE on your own as a novice coder. But as a teacher, you have a completely different problem: You need a really simple, easy to explain environment - no fuss, no unnecessary complexity. Students /will/ explore unused features on their own and get lost or mess up. There is simp…

> I'd assume you are not working in education? Not right now, but I did. > But as a teacher, you have a completely different problem: You need a really simple, easy to explain environment - no fuss, no unnecessary complexity. Just tell them to ignore that complexity and only press this and this. When I was a kid we were taught to code (simple games in C/WinAPI and C++/MFC) in Visual Studio 6 Enterprise Edition on Win…

“Here’s something that isn’t meant for your use case, but just ignore most stuff”

Vs.

“This does exactly what you want”

Of course, there are advantages to learning with the same tool you could also go on to use professionally.

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#52

Post by OliverJones »

rcoder wrote: post #22

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here yet: Thonny explicitly supports Micropython for embedded systems development: https://github.com/thonny/thonny/wiki/MicroPython IME Thonny is a great sketchpad for Micropython ideas, and makes work on that platform nearly as easy as locally-run Python code.

Yup, and Raspberry Pis. ... good stuff. It would be double-cool if they could do something about the need for lots of RPi hardware-hacker programs to run as root. It's open source, though ... pull request time?

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#53

Post by OliverJones »

nyellin wrote: post #37

I would love to see someone change the tiny debugger icons for actions like "pause" and "next step" to giant, obvious, text only buttons with a clear and colorful call to action. They're the most important buttons on the IDE for beginners and they're the least obvious. Also, make breakpoints discoverable if you don't know that they're possible.

pull request time? a teacher might have a lot of influence on that team.

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#55

Post by samatman »

protonfish wrote: post #15

Why is everything an IDE? I don't want an integrated development environment - I want a modular one. And as one of those modules, I would love a simple, lightweight code editor. UTF-8 only, auto-indent, a file list column, a good find-in-page feature, and file type dependent syntax highlighting and multi-line comment key. That's all I need. It seems I am always stuck between bloated IDEs (or bloated text editors like…

While there are a lot of options, I'd guess you'd really like JED.

I'm serious, give it a spin, it's underrated.

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#56

Post by ineedasername »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #49
mstolpm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume you are not working in education? Of course, PyCharm has great features and you don't need to use all of them when working with the IDE on your own as a novice coder. But as a teacher, you have a completely different problem: You need a really simple, easy to explain environment - no fuss, no unnecessary complexity. Students /will/ explore unused features on their own and get lost or mess up. There is simp…

> I'd assume you are not working in education? Not right now, but I did. > But as a teacher, you have a completely different problem: You need a really simple, easy to explain environment - no fuss, no unnecessary complexity. Just tell them to ignore that complexity and only press this and this. When I was a kid we were taught to code (simple games in C/WinAPI and C++/MFC) in Visual Studio 6 Enterprise Edition on Win…

Just because you learned using a more complex tool doesn't mean it wouldn't be easier for most students to learn using a less complex tool. It just means learning with a complex tool is possible. I don't think anyone would argue against that. They're just arguing it might be easier the other way around.

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#57

Post by z3t4 »

protonfish wrote: post #15

Why is everything an IDE? I don't want an integrated development environment - I want a modular one. And as one of those modules, I would love a simple, lightweight code editor. UTF-8 only, auto-indent, a file list column, a good find-in-page feature, and file type dependent syntax highlighting and multi-line comment key. That's all I need. It seems I am always stuck between bloated IDEs (or bloated text editors like…

Wait, how would the editor be able to auto-indent Python code!? Since python is white space sensitive and don't have "end" or } to mark the end of a block.

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#58

Post by tejtm »

protonfish wrote: post #15

Why is everything an IDE? I don't want an integrated development environment - I want a modular one. And as one of those modules, I would love a simple, lightweight code editor. UTF-8 only, auto-indent, a file list column, a good find-in-page feature, and file type dependent syntax highlighting and multi-line comment key. That's all I need. It seems I am always stuck between bloated IDEs (or bloated text editors like…

That sounds a lot like Geany

https://www.geany.org/

I see it more as an good modular editor that they dressed up as an IDE cause that is what the people say they want.

Re: Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE

#59

Post by alexhutcheson »

F00Fbug wrote: post #34

I recommend this to my students frequently. I teach an intro to programming class to college students who have no experience. Inevitably, some try to use PyCharm and they just get lost in it! I tell them it's like learning to drive in an 18 wheeler with a manual transmission. Thonny is very much the Toyota Corolla of IDEs and it's perfect for beginners. The debugger and variable pane really help beginners figure out…

I recommend Geany[1] to students learning Java for the same reason. Many students used to try to use Eclipse, but would get bogged down in Eclipse' notion of a "project" and other details that were unrelated to the simple tasks they were trying to do. Geany is much easier for them to get started with, and still provides a graphical way to run and debug code.

[1] https://www.geany.org/

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