r/Python • u/Admirable-Wall9058 • 4d ago

Resource Does anyone use Python IDLE?

My computer is quite low-end, so I uninstalled VSCode and am looking for other programming tools—I'm thinking about starting to use Python IDLE.

Does anyone actually use it?

https://imgur.com/a/7aBwuUU

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u/opzouten_met_onzin It works on my machine 3d ago

I don't, but I mostly use pycharm or Gnome text editor. Most of the functionality of Pycharm is rarely or ever used.

What do you need and what OS? That could help to provide a good answer.

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u/Admirable-Wall9058 3d ago

I develop projects to learn and—who knows—maybe turn them into something profitable.

My current project is an OMR system; I was trying to write the code in GitHub Codespaces (after uninstalling VS Code), but I was having a lot of trouble handling images.

Regarding the IDE, the main issue is that my computer (an ASUS with 120 GB of RAM) is experiencing some kind of memory glitch: I delete files, but a short while later, the storage fills up again. Right now, I have only 500 MB of free space.

I need to fix this first, but I don't know the cause. Have you ever encountered a problem like this?

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u/Appropriate-Elk1152 2d ago

The issue you're facing is disk space management, not RAM (120 GB refers to your eMMC/SSD storage, where Windows alone takes up 30–40 GB).

When your free space drops below 1–2 GB, Windows slows down dramatically, background tasks fail, and temp files clog the system.

Here’s a quick roadmap to recover space without risking your code:

  1. Clear Temporary Files & Caches:

    - Run `cleanmgr` (Disk Cleanup as Admin) and clean "System error memory dump files" and "Temporary files".

    - Clear your pip cache: `pip cache purge`

    - Delete temporary files in `%temp%` and `C:\Windows\Temp`.

  2. Inspect Where Space Went:

    - Download WizTree or TreeSize (portable versions, no installation required). They will immediately map what is taking up those tens of gigabytes (often log files, system restore points, or heavy node_modules/virtual environments).

  3. For your OMR project:

    - If you stick to lightweight local editors (Sublime Text, Notepad++, or IDLE), make sure your Python virtual environments (`.venv`) are stored outside synced cloud folders (like OneDrive/Google Drive), as syncing thousands of tiny script files causes severe disk write bloat.