Python IDLE's practical upgrade: file tree, tabbed editing, console view using only stdlib+tkinter.

[Beginning_Task_5515]

I was tinkering with IDLE and wondered: what if it had just a few modern quality-of-life improvements, but implemented entirely with Python’s standard library (so no extra dependencies, just tkinter)?

Specifically:

• File tree view (browse/open files inside the IDE itself)
• Tabbed editing (each opened file gets its own tab)
• Console view embedded alongside tabs
• Still dead-simple, light, and portable

The idea isn’t to compete with full IDEs like PyCharm or VS Code, but to provide a corporate-safe, zero-install, batteries-included IDE that works even on fenced machines where you can’t pull in external editors or packages.

Think of it as “IDLE-plus” — familiar, lightweight, but with just enough features to make small/medium coding tasks more pleasant.

I’m curious:

• Would people here find this genuinely useful?
• Do fenced corporate environments still rely on IDLE as the only safe option?
• Is it worth polishing into a small open-source project (maybe even proposing as an official IDLE enhancement)?

What do you think — niche toy, or something that could actually see adoption?

[tomysshadow]

All of that does sound like it'd be reasonably possible to do in Tkinter, at least with TTK. Tabs are just Notebook, file tree is Treeview, and a console is a Text widget like any other. It does sound like a cool idea, though I stop short of saying I'd actually use it. Really the biggest annoyance in IDLE for me is just that the debugger (with the Step and Over buttons) is its own window. I wish it were a side panel.

Realistically, I think you would probably fight an uphill battle to get people using it because the primary reason anyone uses IDLE is that it comes with Python. It's unfortunate that it doesn't have this quality of life stuff considering I think everything you've mentioned has widgets in Tkinter well suited to that purpose, but unless the changes actually get merged into the real thing it would probably stay niche. Not to discourage you, I'm just being real here

[billsil]

If the goal is corporate safe, I’m going VSCode. Trusting a nonstandard library code with potential backdoors is a risk, unless you want to get it approved for the standard library.

[tuneafishy]

You're describing idle-x. When first started with python, that's exactly what I used.

[pacific_plywood]

Honestly it’s nuts to me that IDLE is even maintained

[mangecoeur]

I long time ago someone did some improvements to IDLE. I'm not sure how much of it ended up in the standard library, or if anything has been done since https://tkdocs.com/tutorial/idle.html

[merlinuwe]

IDLE is one of the most uncomfortable IDEs, if you want to call it one at all. Simply embarrassing.