Now available at http://EmpowermentZone.com/InPy.zip InPy Version 1.0 October 29, 2008 Copyright 2008 by Jamal Mazrui LGPL license InPy (short for Interactive Python) is a free, console mode environment for testing and evaluating code in the Python language. InPy seeks to enhance the default shell environment of Python for Windows in ways that make it more productive, especially for screen reader users. The program works well with a screen reader, since new output to the console is automatically read. InPy may also be used as a speech-friendly calculator or workspace, since various math and science modules are available for Python, e.g., from the SciPy page at http://scipy.org Python is being used as the development language in several accessibility-related projects, including Orca http://live.gnome.org/Orca NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) http://www.nvda-project.org/ latex-access http://latex-access.sourceforge.net Yet Another Braille Translator http://pypi.python.org/pypi/YABT/1.0.1 and SayTools http://EmpowermentZone.com/saysetup.exe Interested programmers can leverage such existing solutions to increase the availability of software applications that are accessible. The main code for this project, InPy.py, should work on Python 2.4, 2.5, or 2.6. Development and testing are currently done with 2.5, so that is the recommended version. To manually install the program, download the archive at http://EmpowermentZone.com/InPy.zip and unzip it into a directory that is convenient to access at a Windows command prompt, e.g., C:\InPy To run the program, execute the batch file InPy.bat. If you are in its directory, you can just enter inpy at the command prompt (capitalization does not matter). The batch file uses Python 2.5 if it has been installed in the default directory C:\Python25 Alternatively, you can invoke the program with the latest version of the EdSharp text and code editor, available at http://EmpowermentZone.com/edsetup.exe EdSharp includes features for managing indentation in Python. After picking the Python language with Control+Shift+F5, InPy is available with the Go to Environment command, Control+Shift+G (assuming Python is installed). If you update an EdSharp installation, press Alt+Shift+0 for new default settings that include InPy support. InPy is developed with the InteractiveConsole class of the Python language, implementing an interpreter that works like the standard one with additional enhancements. This includes being able to clear the screen with the cls command. You can also save output from a session with the log command. For anyone interested in learning to program in Python, some useful links are as follows. The direct download address of the Python 2.5 installer is http://python.org/ftp/python/2.5.2/python-2.5.2.msi The main list of Python add-in packages is at http://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=index A convenient utility called easy_install for adding or updating packages is at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools/ A collection of text tutorials on Python is at http://EmpowermentZone.com/pyth_doc.zip I invite Python programmers to contribute ideas and code to this open source project. Below is the online help of this release: InPy 1.0 by Jamal Mazrui Type a Python statement or expression, followed by Enter. A trailing semicolon (;) may be used to seperate multiple statements on the same line, though indentation would still need to be embedded for a nested block. The prompt changes from a greater than symbbol (>) to a period (.) if more input is needed to complete a statement. If the output of a command is more than 23 lines of text, the display is paused so that it does not scroll off the screen. The More? prompt then requests a choice, to be followed by Enter. Enter the letter y or nothing to answer Yes for the next screen. Enter n for No, thereby returning to the > input prompt. Enter a for All text, which continues without pausing. This is useful when logging the output to a file. Besides regular Python syntax, this interpreter adds some commands. A command name is lower case, with a space before any argument, which is not quoted. exit or quit - end this program cls - clear the screen exec FileName - execute a Python script file log FileName - log output to a new file log off - stop logging help - display this documentation Other help features of the standard Python interpreter are available, e.g., the help() and dir() functions, used either with or without parameters. __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind