I am just starting Python and as I am in my mid 70s things dont sink in as quick as when I was younger . I am following a series on youtube and have just installed PYTHON 3.10 64 bit and VPYTHON . I pleased to say both are running ok.
On the youtube video the guy drew a cylinder with the line …
y=cylinder (pos=vector (-3,0,0),length=6,radius=0.5,color=color.yellow).
I tried it and it worked fine . then he went on showing how to alter the arguments such as position using Y. as he typed the Y and a dot up popped a little window saying what args he could change like pos, length , radius etc. Mine doesnt do that . Yes the command y.radius=1 does change the radius from 0.5 to 1 but I didnt get the pop up window with the helpful hints . Is it something I have to enable ? and if so what is it and where do I find it ?
Hello Don and welcome to the list (and to the language). If I’ve found the same youtube channel, he’s using VSCode. These seem like engaging resources from a quick dip.
The pop-up is an IDE (editor) feature: most have something like it: VSCode calls it IntelliSense. Looks from the help like you might have to install an extension.
In the IDE I use (and mostly in Java), you can vary the delay, or turn it off. It’s a great help to the lazy typist, but even when on, I find it doesn’t always pop up if there are enough errors nearby to confuse it. I still have browser windows open on the documentation for all the things I’m using.
Hi Jeff , I was watching the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T87UGG_cVVc&t=1043s and at
17mins 22sec you can see the pop up appear. I believe that he said he is using python IDLE which
is what I was also using .
Having watched more of his tuts I see he also uses VSCode so I will give that a try
In the video it is the editor in IDLE. I do not use it but I checked its version 3.10 and the following works by default:
Signature of a function shows up automatically. For example after typing print( arguments and their default values show up immediately.
There is also limited completion as seen in the video. For example type pr then press TAB and the pull-down list containing print and other identifiers will show up.
I find it doesn’t always respond, I think because it can’t always tell what type of object it is dealing with until the code has executed. It works more reliably in the interactive console because everything you mention is an object it has actually created or imported. (Well, most things.)
If you want to check completion is working at all, try "". and pause. It’s bound to know that’s a string and what its methods are.
I too am just learning Python. Vaclav Brozik mentioned “sololearn” (Google it) as a good place to learn Python. I agree. It is worth the money to me to become pro, so I did. Am glad I did.
Good luck learning to program, its an adventure of the mind.
. then he went on showing how to alter the arguments such as position using Y. as he typed the Y and a dot up popped a little window saying what args he could change like pos, length , radius etc. Mine doesnt do that . Yes the command y.radius=1 does change the radius from 0.5 to 1 but I didnt get the pop up window with the helpful hints . Is it something I have to enable ? and if so what is it and where do I find it ?