Why use Python interactive mode?

Question

When I first started reading about Python, all of the tutorials have you use Python\'s Interactive Mode. It is difficult to save, write long programs, or edit your existing

Answer 1

you use the interactive interpreter to test snippets of your code before you put them into your script.

Answer 2

Interactive mode makes it easy to test code snippets before incorporating them into a larger program. If you use IDLE there's syntax highlighting and argument pop-ups to help you out. It's also a quick way of checking that you've figured out how to use a module without having to write a test program.

Answer 3

You're talking about running Python in the console by simply typing "python"? That's just for little tests and for practicing with the language. It's very useful when learning the language and testing out other modules.

Of course any real software project is written in .py files and later executed by the interpreter!

Answer 4

When coding in Java, you almost always will have the API open in some browser window. However with the python interpreter, you can always import any module that you are thinking about using and check what it offers. You can also test the behavior of new methods that you are unsure of, to eliminate the "Oh! so THAT's how it works" as a source of bugs.