Thonny Python - Advice

[ITGuyNW]

Hi all

 

One of our Staff has come to me saying after the Easter break they need a program called Thonny installing for all pupils. Great notice there.

 

Thonny, Python IDE for beginners

 

Has anyone ever deployed this or used it on a network? Is it something that should be run in a sandbox?

 

I did suggest the various online python IDE platforms however apparently they need to use a program as the exam spec requires "file writing".

[slugshead]

I put that one out in our comp suite, it's probably the most lightweight and quickest install of an IDE I've ever done.

 

You could sandbox it, in a VM on each computer with no network access. I didn't

[mavhc]

It does sometimes like to install per user.

 

Whether you let students run code is a different question, it's way too pretend if you don't. Half of learning to program is interacting with the OS, not the language itself, if a human can't use a terminal, filesystem, task manager etc they can't be a programmer, would be like a science teacher who couldn't do experiments.

 

At least when you're made aware of a flaw by a student you can fix it before a real hacker gets in, better to know now than after you owe someone a whole bitcoin.