How to persist Python turtle graphics screen

Question

I am learning Python (v 3.7) on a Mac using PyCharm. As I practice using the turtle library, the program runs without error, outputs the correct graphics, but then the graphics screen disappears immediately after the code completes runnning. Adding time.sleep(5) at the end of my program persists it and also shows that the focus changed from PyCharm to a Python program menu (which I can't find or turn on in the hope of keeping running).

When I use Thonny, the output persists, so I can check my work. How can I make it persist in PyCharm?

Possible duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/983354/how-do-i-make-python-to-wait-for-a-pressed-key — Cees Timmerman, Aug 30 '19 at 01:47
@CeesTimmerman not exactly, although `input("Press Enter to continue...")` can be used as another ugly workaround. I was hoping there is a configuration/setup feature in PyCharm to persist the output. — K Owen - Reinstate Monica, Aug 30 '19 at 02:02
`input("Press Enter to continue...")` works inside PyCharm. In Thonny you don't need any workaround. Haven't tried other environments. — K Owen - Reinstate Monica, Aug 30 '19 at 02:11
Then Thonny adds its own pause feature so the user doesn't have to. You will have to when running the code by itself from the command line. — Cees Timmerman, Sep 02 '19 at 13:26

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 31 '19 at 06:01

A well-structured Python turtle program will end with a call to mainloop() or one of its variants (exitonclick(), done()) This turns control over to the underlying tkinter event handler which will keep your window open, awaiting user events. Without this, the program simply ends and the window closes.

You don't need time.sleep() nor input("Press Enter to continue..."). Some Python programming environments clash with mainloop() but even those tend to disable it behind the scenes so the same code works everywhere.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 30 '19 at 01:43

First, do not use PyCharm to test. If you like it, more power to you, but personally, I have had many issues with output and PyCharm. Learn the command line, since you are using Mac. CodeAcacdemy and LinuxJournery have really good resources on that subject. Second, if you are still having issues, please reinstall trutle, Python 3.7 (there were some issues wiht it displaying on Mac), and macOS itself. Have a great day!

https://linuxjourney.com/ https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-the-command-line Problems getting pygame to show anything but a blank screen on Macos Mojave

That was not my question, sorry. I am comfortable in the command line environment, just wanted to do a quick graphics script that, btw, works perfectly on Thonny, and with the `time.sleep()` trick, it also works in Pycharm. Just need to persist the graphic windows. — K Owen - Reinstate Monica, Aug 30 '19 at 01:51

How to persist Python turtle graphics screen

2 Answers2