JishOS Python IDE Becomes a Real IDE

This was one of the biggest development sessions for JishOS so far. The Python IDE went from a basic code runner to something that feels much closer to a real desktop IDE.

✨ New Features

🧩 Desktop Widgets

Introduced desktop widgets to enhance the operating system experience.

Features:

• 🕒 Live digital clock
• 📅 Interactive calendar
• Seamlessly integrated with the desktop UI

🐍 Pyodide Integration

• Embedded a full Python runtime using Pyodide.
• Python now runs completely inside the browser.
• No backend server required.

📝 Monaco Editor

• Integrated Monaco Editor.
• Python syntax highlighting.
• Larger font and cleaner editing experience.
• Code is automatically saved using local storage.

💻 Interactive Terminal

• Terminal displays Python output.

• Color-coded messages:

  • 🟢 Python output
  • 🔴 Errors
  • 🟡 User commands
  • 🔵 JishOS responses

• Auto-scroll implemented.

• Fixed several scrolling and layout bugs.

📦 Package Manager

Implemented a lightweight package manager.

Supported command:

pip install <package>

Features:

• Downloads packages using pyodide.loadPackage()
• Remembers installed packages with LocalStorage
• Prevents duplicate installations
• Clean success/error messages

Successfully tested with:

• numpy
• pandas
• matplotlib

📊 Plot Viewer

Added the first version of the Plot Viewer.

Current implementation:

• Detects when Matplotlib creates figures.
• Automatically opens a Plot Viewer window.
• Embeds Matplotlib’s native WebAgg viewer inside JishOS.
• Toolbar (zoom, pan, save) works.

This is considered a temporary v1 solution before moving to a custom renderer in a future version.

🖥 Window System Improvements

Improved the desktop window manager:

• Better focus handling
• More reliable resizing
• Fixed several overflow issues
• Better scrolling behavior for embedded applications

🐛 Major Bugs Fixed

• Fixed terminal scrollbar appearing too late.
• Fixed Monaco editor overflowing its window.
• Fixed terminal auto-scroll.
• Fixed rounded Monaco container.
• Fixed Pyodide loading issues.
• Fixed duplicate package installation.
• Fixed Plot Viewer DOM integration.

📚 Things Learned

Today involved learning about:

• Pyodide package loading
• Browser virtual file systems
• React refs
• DOM manipulation
• WebAgg backend
• LocalStorage persistence
• Component communication in React
• Handling asynchronous Python execution

🔜 Planned for Version 2

Instead of delaying the first release, these features have been postponed to v2:

• 📁 Virtual filesystem
• 📄 Multiple files (main.py, main2.py, data.csv, notes.txt)
• 🗂 File Explorer
• 📂 Folder support
• 💾 Projects
• 🖼 Custom Plot Viewer (PNG-based rendering)
• 🖥 Multiple Python projects

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