Edubuntu and CS Education using Python

[jelkner at divmod.com]

Hi All,

The Dapper release of Edubuntu still lacks a beginners IDE that works out of the box.  Here are the problems:

1. IDLE won't start without the -n argument, which is not used by default in the menu.  Thus IDLE will only start for the first person who launches it.  It will fail for all subsequent users with a "IDLE can't bind to TCP port 8833" error.

2. All Python IDE's suitable for beginners which use wxPython (DrPython, SPE), suffer from a still unfixed wxPython bug which causes the mouse cursor to lock up.

I am not aware of any pyGtk IDE solutions.  We definitely need something, so I hope this becomes an important part of the Dapper+1 Edubuntu discussion.

Any hope that '-n' could be added to Edubuntu Dapper for the IDLE launcher?

jeff elkner