Missing Features and Alternative REPLs

00:00 Missing Features and Alternative REPLs. Compared to a full-featured code editor, IDE, or REPL, the standard REPL is relatively minimal and doesn’t provide many features to help you code and make you more productive.

00:15 This lack of features is probably due to the existence of IDLE, which also comes in the standard Python installation and provides a feature-rich REPL. On-screen is a non-exhaustive list of IDE-like features that the standard REPL doesn’t support.

00:32 Having all the features seen on-screen at your disposal in a REPL session would improve your user experience when interacting with Python. They would increase your productivity and reduce the number of errors and typos that you’d make in your code. Fortunately, the Python standard shell can easily be extended and customized. Therefore, you’ll find a few alternative REPLs that implement most of these features and more. As a Python developer, you’ll spend much of your coding time in the interactive mode because it provides a great tool for testing ideas, proving concepts, and debugging code.

01:06 When you spend a significant part of your time working with a given tool, you’d love for it to implement a rich set of features that make your life more pleasant with a great user experience.

01:16 The CPython implementation includes IDLE, which provides an enhanced alternative to the standard REPL out of the box. IDLE is a great tool that you can use without installing anything from a third-party source.

01:37 In the Python ecosystem, you will find other feature-rich REPLs. IPython has been around for some time. It provides code completion, object exploration, and advanced history management and many other features.

01:52 It’s particularly popular in the data science ecosystem.

02:02 Another enhanced REPL is bpython, which offers several IDE-like features that will improve your user experience and increase your productivity.

02:20 The ptpython REPL is another good alternative to the standard one. It includes features such as syntax highlighting, multiline editing, auto-completion, mouse support, and more.

02:38 If you would prefer to use an online REPL, there are several options available. The Python.org shell is an online interface for the standard REPL, available on the official Python website.

02:56 Replit is an online coding platform that, amongst other features, allows you to start and use a Python REPL. And the Python Morsels online REPL allows you to copy or save your coding session.

03:18 A search on the Internet will find a few other online Python REPLs with different features. Give them a shot and choose the tool that best suits your needs.

03:30 In the next section of the course, you’ll review what you’ve learned.