I run calculations on Windows for hours and would like to have the calculation report/log inside the interactive IDLE/shell window be saved to a file at the end by a command. Would be nice to exit() and close the window too. As much as I like Linux, this is an Unattended Windows machine, hence, some modules/commands are not available, sadly, and the ability to install other software is limited. The fact that the developers did not think of a command to save the transactions within the IDLE/shell is surprising.
I know in some environments you can direct the output of a job, like a report to another text file by using the key -o, --o, --output, > to a text file. Surprisingly Python does not support anything like that!
Any help would be appreciated Thanks
Windows Command Prompt supports stdout redirection and probably stderr redirection. I just tested python -c "print(test)" > F:/dev/tem/out.txt and the print out went to out.txt. Replace -c "print('test') with script.py and the same should happen. Piping stdout of one program to stdin of another might work. You might be able to chain programs with a .bat file. PowerShell likely is more powerful and flexible, but I have never used it.
I am not completely clear on what you are asking, but I hope the following answers your questions.
Python runs in 2 modes: batch and interactive. Interactive mode is intended for ephermeral interaction with a human. Batch mode is for unattended computation, with occasional screen messages, but with most results sent to a file other than the screen. Both modes are combined when you run python -i xyz.py. The file is first run in batch mode, and then Python shifts to interactive mode.
It sounds like you should be using batch mode rather than either Python's or IDLE's interactive mode. If your code runs from IDLE, you should be able to run it directly with the same python.exe that you used to run IDLE. There are exceptions, of course, if one makes one's code dependent on running within IDLE, but this is unlikely to be an accident or to be needed for unattended running.
The IDLE Shell simulates interactive Python. When a file is run from an editor window, IDLE simulates python -i file-being-edited.py, with screen output going to Shell. In either case, an interactive user can save the contents of Shell with the File => Save As menu command. So there is such a command. There are also close window and exit commands and shortcuts.
In IDLE's intended use, as an interactive python learning and program development environment, there is no need from for a program to issue these commands. To save data in a file, a program can open a file and write data directly.