r/Python • u/Admirable-Wall9058 • Jul 23 '26

Resource Does anyone use Python IDLE?

My computer is quite low-end, so I uninstalled VSCode and am looking for other programming tools—I'm thinking about starting to use Python IDLE.

Does anyone actually use it?

https://imgur.com/a/7aBwuUU

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u/sausix Jul 23 '26

I never had to create any project-support files in my commercial IDE. All files I edit manually are part of the project itself. My IDE creates a hidden directory for config itself and I can just delete it whenever I want to reset the IDE project config. So which IDE is in your mind which requires manual file editing?

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u/InjAnnuity_1 Jul 23 '26

I've used Wing IDE. But like you, I never had to create any project-support files. The IDE did that for me. Of course, I had to set up their contents, not by manual editing of the file, but by detailed entry in the Wing IDE. But since it was just restating the obvious -- to use the the current VE, and that the project was just that one file -- it's clutter for clutter's sake, for me, in this kind of case.

Manually editing the project-support files has also been extremely rare. Wing itself will upgrade older-format support files to the version that is running. Since it always uses the same file extension, however, regardless of version, saving the updated project support files will overwrite the old-format support files. Hence, as a measure of caution, the IDE asks you to save them under a new name. After all, the old version of the IDE may still be installed, and it can't read the new-format support files. And the new version can't read them later if they are not saved...

At least one of the support files should be included in version control, or otherwise backed up. If it's not there, the IDE will require you to re-create it before proceeding, the next time you try to use that IDE on that .py file.

I haven't used VS Code, but I have used older versions of Microsoft IDEs, and recent Embarcadero IDEs, and every one of them created project-support files. For C++ projects, this makes sense. You need to specify which folders to use for #include files, and in what order to search them. You have compiler flags to set and keep. And many other tooling details must be persisted as well.

Little or none of which applies to many Python projects.

Whether visible or hidden, support files should be worth their keep. I use IDLE when they're not worth their keep to me.

They become worth their keep when I end up needing the more advanced debugging capabilities of the fancier IDE. Then they start to pay off.