[Eric] PyQt4 realtime interactive shell

[Shem Valentine]

Hello Gurus,

I am a beginner to both python and pyqt, so I apoligize in advance if
this question seems quite simple.

Since I am such a beginner I need to play with a few functions/methods
of PyQt and see what their result is.  I can do this quite easily from
the IDLE shell.

For Example:

I'll import my mainwindow class

Do the standard
 a = QApplication([])
 w = MyMainWindow()
 w.show()

Then I can play with the Widgets
 w.lineedit.displayText()
 w.lineedit.setText()
 etc


The Problem:

When I run my app in eric4 I don't get the ">>>" prompt, and as such
can't play with my widget methods realtime.

If I remove the main .show() method, I can get a ">>>" prompt and run
these methods, but I can't get the window to display.  I'll run w.show()
and nothing will happen, I'll run w.hide() and the screen will flicker,
but still nothing.

I would love to be able to do this in eric4, and I imagine it's just
something simple I'm missing.  Any help/guide on doing this would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-Shem