Writing an IDLE extension

=========================

An IDLE extension can define new key bindings and menu entries for IDLE

edit windows. There is a simple mechanism to load extensions when IDLE

starts up and to attach them to each edit window. (It is also possible

to make other changes to IDLE, but this must be done by editing the IDLE

source code.)

The list of extensions loaded at startup time is configured by editing

the file config-extensions.def. See below for details.

An IDLE extension is defined by a class. Methods of the class define

actions that are invoked by event bindings or menu entries. Class (or

instance) variables define the bindings and menu additions; these are

automatically applied by IDLE when the extension is linked to an edit

window.

An IDLE extension class is instantiated with a single argument,

`editwin', an EditorWindow instance. The extension cannot assume much

about this argument, but it is guaranteed to have the following instance

variables:

text a Text instance (a widget)

io an IOBinding instance (more about this later)

flist the FileList instance (shared by all edit windows)

(There are a few more, but they are rarely useful.)

The extension class must not directly bind Window Manager (e.g. X) events.

Rather, it must define one or more virtual events, e.g. <<z-in>>, and

corresponding methods, e.g. z_in_event(). The virtual events will be

bound to the corresponding methods, and Window Manager events can then be bound

to the virtual events. (This indirection is done so that the key bindings can

easily be changed, and so that other sources of virtual events can exist, such

as menu entries.)

An extension can define menu entries. This is done with a class or instance

variable named menudefs; it should be a list of pairs, where each pair is a

menu name (lowercase) and a list of menu entries. Each menu entry is either

None (to insert a separator entry) or a pair of strings (menu_label,

virtual_event). Here, menu_label is the label of the menu entry, and

virtual_event is the virtual event to be generated when the entry is selected.

An underscore in the menu label is removed; the character following the

underscore is displayed underlined, to indicate the shortcut character (for

Windows).

At the moment, extensions cannot define whole new menus; they must define

entries in existing menus. Some menus are not present on some windows; such

entry definitions are then ignored, but key bindings are still applied. (This

should probably be refined in the future.)

Extensions are not required to define menu entries for all the events they

implement. (They are also not required to create keybindings, but in that

case there must be empty bindings in config-extensions.def)

Here is a partial example from zzdummy.py:

class ZzDummy:

menudefs = [

('format', [

('Z in', '<<z-in>>'),

('Z out', '<<z-out>>'),

] )

]

def __init__(self, editwin):

self.editwin = editwin

def z_in_event(self, event=None):

"...Do what you want here..."

The final piece of the puzzle is the file "config-extensions.def", which is

used to configure the loading of extensions and to establish key (or, more

generally, event) bindings to the virtual events defined in the extensions.

See the comments at the top of config-extensions.def for information. It's

currently necessary to manually modify that file to change IDLE's extension

loading or extension key bindings.

For further information on binding refer to the Tkinter Resources web page at

python.org and to the Tk Command "bind" man page.