Hmm. Too bad – there's a report about a Python library class that offers a much better alternative to readline (the input routine used in the Python interpreter). You can do multiline editing with it and, for example, use Tab to autocomplete Python names (modules and other globals). Disadvantage: it requires curses. And oddly enough, curses isn't generated when building the private Python for PyDS. Strange.
Ok, so I simply copied the files from the standard Python that comes with OS X 10.2, and it works. Nice module. Only: once again, the programmers have no idea about unusual environments like, for example, 8-bit character sets. Umlauts don't work. Backspace doesn't work; you have to use Ctrl-H instead.
But it's definitely more comfortable, even if it takes a bit longer to load. Let's see if it can possibly be integrated into the monitoring client in the Python Desktop Server, since that suffers mainly from its absolutely spartan input capabilities.