Release Testing for py5 Thonny Plugin version 0.5.0

[hx2A]

@villares, @GoToLoop, and all py5 users who would like to help test the py5 thonny plugin before the next release!

Recent changes: (#74, #75)

• plugin build now uses hatch to make this consistent with py5 and py5jupyter
• fix bug that caused Sketch window to open in a place where I cannot see it
• updated links in README and elsewhere to reflect the new repo location
• plugin now requires python>=3.10, which is fine, 3.9 is EOL in a month anyway. The TypeAlias stuff added to install_jdk.py doesn't work in 3.9. TypeAlias was added in 3.10 but only is deprecated in 3.12. :( How odd. Let's leave it alone for now.
• version 0.5.0rc0, upcoming release will be 0.5.0a0

You can obtain an installable plugin here:

thonny_py5mode-0.5.0rc0.tar.gz

In Thonny's "Manage Plugins" page it allows you to install a plugin from a local file. After installing (and restarting Thonny) you will see it as an installed plugin in the plugins window. That window can also tell you were the plugin is installed to if you want to be 100% sure the previous version is in fact gone.

Please test this on all platforms. Report back to this discussion thread what you find. @villares and @GoToLoop , what specifically should we look out for here?

[hx2A]

Also, @villares , are you happy with what is in the README.md file? The contents of this file will appear on pypi.

[villares]

• Thonny nowadays comes mostly with Python 3.10 (except for some legacy 32-bit versions) we could bump the references to Python 3.8 I think.
• I would favor simplifying the "how to get Thonny" paragraphs linking to Thonny.org instead of the 4.1.7 release assets... this would let us avoid updating the page in case of a Thonny release, but adds some risc in case the new Thonny release breaks something...
• I should check all links
• The credits part could have a bit of a re-write

Should I make a PR? Or maybe I can edit it directly and you check for style and typos afterwards?

[hx2A]

Thank you, these are all important. Can you make a PR for these?

[villares]

@hx2A I have started a quick edit here: https://github.com/villares/thonny-py5mode/blob/main/README.md and will open the PR for sure.

Should I bring in more of the info & wording & images I use at: https://abav.lugaralgum.com/como-instalar-py5/index-EN.html ?

[hx2A]

Should I bring in more of the info & wording & images I use at: https://abav.lugaralgum.com/como-instalar-py5/index-EN.html ?

If you think it would help, sure! You did put a lot of work into writing that and it is a solid explanation, so why not go with that?

[villares]

In Thonny's "Manage Plugins" page it allows you to install a plugin from a local file. After installing (and restarting Thonny) you will see it as an installed plugin in the plugins window. That window can also tell you were the plugin is installed to if you want to be 100% sure the previous version is in fact gone.

Please test this on all platforms. Report back to this discussion thread what you find.

Somehow I missed this Thonny plug-in local file install feature!

Looking again at this screen capture, I think the py5 version details will be on "Manage Packages...". Which brings in a thorny issue, I've been instructing people to install py5 before they install the plug-in so that py5 can be updated independently (and maybe other benefits)...

I'll try to do a full test on Windows this week!

[villares]

Now that we can update/release again our plug-in each time we release a new version of py5, maybe this is not an issue anymore!

(I'm not 100% sure how it works, but it seems like the dependencies installed by a plug-in are somehow unavailable on the "manage package" interface)

[hx2A]

Now that we can update/release again our plug-in each time we release a new version of py5, maybe this is not an issue anymore!

(I'm not 100% sure how it works, but it seems like the dependencies installed by a plug-in are somehow unavailable on the "manage package" interface)

I see. We can certainly speed up the plugin release cycle.

I was planning on doing a py5 release soon. Should we delay the plugin release until after?

[villares]

I think it could be a good idea.

I'll see if I can test the plug-in this week on Windows and confirm, on a clean install, if I can update/re-install py5 after the plug-in, so we have more information on this.

I have mixed feelings about this: when the plug-in installs py5 it potentially simplifies installation steps, but it might make the person using it less aware of how to install packages on Thonny and that py5 is a normal Python package that can be installed on other Python env set ups...

[villares]

Tested on Windows today, it all seems to work fine!

The plug-in was able to install the JDK and set JAVA_HOME on Thonny preferences/options... I Tested removing the JAVA_HOME path from the Thonny options, and the plug-in brought it back.

Also, I tried to install the plug-in without installing py5 first, as I mentioned, on the Manage Packages panel you can't update the library, but it looks like it would be possible to update py5 from the Plug-in Manager panel... then again, if we launch a new plug-in release after each py5 release people would always get the latest py5 and none of this would matter.

[hx2A]

Tested on Windows today, it all seems to work fine!

Excellent, thank you!

then again, if we launch a new plug-in release after each py5 release people would always get the latest py5 and none of this would matter.

Perhaps it isn't that difficult to both releases at the same time, or re-release the plugin after a py5 release. But I don't want to do that just to bump the plugin version number. There should be at least a few substantive coding changes if we are going to ask people to update.

But for the next release, I have closed out that weird macos segmentation fault bug, and now have pretty much everything lined up for what I want in the next py5 release. I'll start the release process this week.

[villares]

I'm working on a PR for the README, and I noticed the "py5 cheatsheet" link is broken and it is also broken in the Plug-in menu item referring to the PDF. It used to point to Tristan's cheat-sheet repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tabreturn/processing.py-cheat-sheet/master/py5/py5_cc.pdf

What should we do?

• Fix the link both on the README and in the plug-in?
• Remove the menu item?

[hx2A]

Is the cheat sheet useful? If so, let's keep it and fix it in both places.

[GoToLoop]

If I install Thonny as a regular Linux package (pacman -S thonny), I can't install any add-on package like "thonny_py5mode-0.5.0rc0.tar.gz".

It fails b/c it attempts to install its addons globally at system-level.

However, Linux considers and manages Python packages just like any other regular package; and not all Python packages are available on Linux repos btW.

As a workaround, I had to continue using Thonny installed inside a "venv", so I'm free to grab any existing Python package; not just those Linux repos provide.

This is the command I used to create a venv for Thonny and "friends":
python -m venv --copies /mnt/docs/Venvs/venv/thonny[3.13]

• python -> the Python executable which will be copied to the new virtual environment.
• -m venv -> runs the module venv which is bound to the Python version running it.
• --copies -> force module venv to actually copy the whole Python files w/o using symlinks.
• /mnt/docs/ -> The mounting point for my personal files partition.
• Venvs/ -> The folder I keep my virtual environments.
• venv/ -> The subfolder I keep virtual environments created by Python's module venv.
• thonny[3.13]/ -> The environment folder for Thonny + py5 + py5mode and other related packages under Python [v3.13].

Then I type 1 of these commands below in order to activate the thonny[3.13] venv depending on the shell I'm using:

• Bash -> source /mnt/docs/Venvs/venv/thonny[3.13]/bin/activate
• Fish -> source /mnt/docs/Venvs/venv/thonny[3.13]/bin/activate.fish

P.S.: Type in deactivate in order to exit the venv once you're finished.

After activating the venv, we can type in pip list in order to check what's pre-installed:

Package Version
------- -------
pip     25.1.1

While we're at it, we can upgrade that pre-installed pip:
pip install -U pip

Now we can finally proceed to install Thonny:
pip install thonny

And then check all the other newly-installed packages that Thonny depends on via pip list again:

Package           Version
----------------- -------
astroid           3.3.11
asttokens         3.0.0
dill              0.4.0
docutils          0.22
isort             6.0.1
jedi              0.19.2
mccabe            0.7.0
mypy              1.17.1
mypy_extensions   1.1.0
parso             0.8.4
pathspec          0.12.1
pip               25.2
platformdirs      4.3.8
pylint            3.3.8
pyserial          3.5
Send2Trash        1.8.3
setuptools        80.9.0
thonny            4.1.7
tomlkit           0.13.3
typing_extensions 4.14.1
wheel             0.45.1

If we wish, we can install package pip-review in order to more easily upgrade everything to their latest version:
pip install pip-review

Just type in pip-review in order to check if any package has an update available.
Then type in pip-review -aC in order to update all of them.

Now, back to Thonny, while we have its venv active, we can run it using this command:
nohup thonny > /tmp/thonny.log 2>&1 & disown

Now inside Thonny, go "Tools" -> "Manage plug-ins...".
Then choose "Install from local file" and find “thonny_py5mode-0.5.0rc0.tar.gz”.

Typing pip list again on the terminal, we should see these packages now:

Package            Version
------------------ --------
astroid            3.3.11
asttokens          3.0.0
autopep8           2.3.2
certifi            2025.8.3
charset-normalizer 3.4.3
dill               0.4.0
docutils           0.22
idna               3.10
install-jdk        1.1.0
isort              6.0.1
jedi               0.19.2
jpype1             1.6.0
line_profiler      5.0.0
mccabe             0.7.0
mypy               1.17.1
mypy_extensions    1.1.0
numpy              2.3.2
packaging          25.0
parso              0.8.4
pathspec           0.12.1
pillow             11.3.0
pip                25.2
pip-review         1.3.0
platformdirs       4.3.8
py5                0.10.6a0
pycodestyle        2.14.0
pylint             3.3.8
pyperclip          1.9.0
pyserial           3.5
requests           2.32.5
Send2Trash         1.8.3
setuptools         80.9.0
stackprinter       0.2.12
thonny             4.1.7
thonny-py5mode     0.5.0rc0
tomlkit            0.13.3
typing_extensions  4.14.1
urllib3            2.5.0
wheel              0.45.1

Now close and re-run Thonny. And voilà, we should be able to spot py5 mode at the top menu:

[hx2A]

What about using the --user flag, to "Install to the Python user install directory for your platform. Typically ~/.local/, or %APPDATA%\Python on Windows. (See the Python documentation for site.USER_BASE for full details.)"? That might be helpful.

[villares]

Folks, if possible I think we should stick to the way recommended by the Thonny maintainer...

So the bash script would be best (I think this is what I'm using) and installing Thonny as a package on an env is described as "for advanced users". Also, the other ways may provide and outdated Thonny version.

[GoToLoop]

So the bash script would be best (I think this is what I'm using)

I've also tried that option today. It works but... I'm not very kin it's always installed in "~/apps/thonny/" and we can't change it.

Lucky it had an "uninstall" script, which I did run btW!

It's basically a type of "venv" w/ Python 3.10.

Very convenient way to get Thonny, but not for me.

... and installing Thonny as a package on an env is described as "for advanced users".

Dunno if some1 knows how to create a Python "venv" is automatically "advanced"...

So that's the method I'm using by typing the following terminal commands:

• python -m venv --copies /mnt/docs/Venvs/venv/thonny[3.13]
• Replace /mnt/docs/Venvs/venv/thonny[3.13] w/ your own custom folder path, of course.
• Activate it via: source path_to_your_own_venv/bin/activate
• Then issue pip install thonny to install Thonny inside that active "venv".
• And run it via: nohup thonny > /tmp/thonny.log 2>&1 & disown

[villares]

I understand this bash script installer is not for you, and for people who know what a "venv" is it would surely be OK to activate an env and pip-install Thonny. Notice there are kind of 4 steps on your procedure...

The thing is most of students I meet have never used the command line, then again most of them are not on Linux :)

My reasoning is: I could be dealing with people who have never touched Python before, even on Linux... I think for them the simplified one step install is very helpful. I would even like to explore again the idea of having a script that installs Thonny, the JDK and the plug-in all at once (also, think of people preparing school labs, how handy that would be...).

[GoToLoop]

If I were on Windows or Mac, I'd surely use their corresponding actual system-wide installer; b/c we don't need to fear that much about breaking the system's Python; since those OSes don't depend on Python like Linux does.

But on Linux, given we already have to deal w/ a Bash script kinda "installer", I'd prefer to do it myself; so I can customize its installed path and other extra packages.

Maybe I might attempt to create an alternative Thonny Bash script which follows all my "venv" approach steps, but asking the user for the desired folder's installing path; defaulting to something like "~/.thonny/" if the user doesn't provide a path.

[hx2A]

@villares @GoToLoop , let's keep things moving with this new release.

Here's the next release candidate, which includes the two PRs by @villares to change the readme and the cheatsheet link.

thonny_py5mode-0.5.0rc1.tar.gz

Anything else we need to change?

There was a suggestion somewhere that we set the py5 dependency to >=0.10.7a0 and to use >= for future releases as a way to simplify the py5 upgrade process when users upgrade the plugin. The result is that when a user upgrades the plugin, py5 would be updated also, without any additional steps. Since the plugin installs py5, py5 cannot be updated using the process a user would use for another library. (is this true? also, is it true for py5's dependencies???)

[GoToLoop]

, but we will still need tweaking for the best experience on a portable Thonny. If you move around the portable folder, the JAVA_HOME on Thonny's preferences needs updating, and updating only takes place if the user turns py5 imported mode off and on again.

I did 2 changes for the JDK/JAVA_HOME checks:

1. Checks are now disabled when toggling off from the py5 imported mode.
2. When we open Thonny, it checks for JAVA_HOME if py5 imported mode was active from previous Thonny execution!

You can copy and paste for a test-drive here:
https://GitHub.com/GoToLoop/thonny-py5mode/blob/refactor/type-hints/thonnycontrib/thonny-py5mode/__init__.py

[hx2A]

@villares , will this change make things easier for you for the portable thonny? Would you like this change in the next release?

[GoToLoop]

Would you like this change in the next release?

These changes are for the "other" release after this 1. ⏭️
But maybe the Windows portable version can apply these changes sooner. 🪟

[villares]

I can apply "manually" these changes to the portable this time. I think I'll be able to test this along the week only.

[villares]

@GoToLoop I tested the rc5 on the portable, downgrading jpype1 to 1.5.2 it doesn't crash...
It is almost perfect for the portable, otherwise it is great I think: For the portable I added the install_jdk() call to the plug-in loading procedure, otherwise on the first run JAVA_HOME isn't set properly, and the user needs to click on the py5 imported mode menu to trigger the JAVA_HOME variable update. You can see my hack here: https://github.com/villares/thonny-portable-with-py5/releases/download/untagged-1a8fb6cbde68e123bc81/thonny-4.1.7-windows-portable-py5-a107-050rc5.zip
Going forward, on another release, we could perhaps split the part of the function that checks if there is a JDK inside Thonny from the downloading behaviour.

[GoToLoop]

Please, test my alternative Thonny + py5mode installation script for Linux:

Gist repo link for "thonny-installer.bash":

https://Gist.GitHub.com/GoToLoop/246a31d437aaa8c6eadb7f7186544e0f

Download + installation command for Linux terminal using curl:

curl -fsSL https://Gist.GitHubUserContent.com/GoToLoop/246a31d437aaa8c6eadb7f7186544e0f/raw/thonny-installer.bash -o thonny-installer.bash && chmod +x thonny-installer.bash && ./thonny-installer.bash

P.S.: Moved my script to my Gist repo so it's easier for me to edit it and make it downloadable!

[villares]

So cool! Thank you, @GoToLoop, I'll test it and get back to you here.

[villares]

The script is brilliant!!!

The first time I ran it it failed (some timeout installing Pillow?) but the second time it worked perfectly. Is there some exception handling in bash that could warn gracefully when it fails?

As it is interactive, would it be a good idea to ask if you want to install the py5[extras]? I think that would be cool...

I like this very much!

For your reference, what it looked like when it failed:

Downloading pillow-11.3.0-cp313-cp313-manylinux_2_27_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (6.6 MB)
   ━━━━━━━╸━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1.3/6.6 MB 1.0 MB/s eta 0:00:06
ERROR: Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/response.py", line 438, in _error_catcher
    yield
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/response.py", line 561, in read
    data = self._fp_read(amt) if not fp_closed else b""
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/response.py", line 527, in _fp_read
    return self._fp.read(amt) if amt is not None else self._fp.read()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/cachecontrol/filewrapper.py", line 98, in read
    data: bytes = self.__fp.read(amt)
                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.13/http/client.py", line 479, in read
    s = self.fp.read(amt)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.13/socket.py", line 719, in readinto
    return self._sock.recv_into(b)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.13/ssl.py", line 1304, in recv_into
    return self.read(nbytes, buffer)
           ~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.13/ssl.py", line 1138, in read
    return self._sslobj.read(len, buffer)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ConnectionResetError: [Errno 104] Connection reset by peer

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/base_command.py", line 107, in _run_wrapper
    status = _inner_run()
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/base_command.py", line 98, in _inner_run
    return self.run(options, args)
           ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/req_command.py", line 71, in wrapper
    return func(self, options, args)
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/commands/install.py", line 393, in run
    requirement_set = resolver.resolve(
        reqs, check_supported_wheels=not options.target_dir
    )
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/resolution/resolvelib/resolver.py", line 184, in resolve
    self.factory.preparer.prepare_linked_requirements_more(reqs)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/operations/prepare.py", line 564, in prepare_linked_requirements_more
    self._complete_partial_requirements(
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        partially_downloaded_reqs,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        parallel_builds=parallel_builds,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/operations/prepare.py", line 479, in _complete_partial_requirements
    for link, (filepath, _) in batch_download:
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/network/download.py", line 184, in batch
    filepath, content_type = self(link, location)
                             ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/network/download.py", line 195, in __call__
    self._process_response(download, resp)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/network/download.py", line 212, in _process_response
    for chunk in chunks:
                 ^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/progress_bars.py", line 67, in _rich_download_progress_bar
    for chunk in iterable:
                 ^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_internal/network/utils.py", line 65, in response_chunks
    for chunk in response.raw.stream(
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        chunk_size,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<22 lines>...
        decode_content=False,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ):
    ^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/response.py", line 622, in stream
    data = self.read(amt=amt, decode_content=decode_content)
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/response.py", line 560, in read
    with self._error_catcher():
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.13/contextlib.py", line 162, in __exit__
    self.gen.throw(value)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^
  File "/home/villares/apps/Thonny/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/urllib3/response.py", line 455, in _error_catcher
    raise ProtocolError("Connection broken: %r" % e, e)
pip._vendor.urllib3.exceptions.ProtocolError: ("Connection broken: ConnectionResetError(104, 'Connection reset by peer')", ConnectionResetError(104, 'Connection reset by peer'))

[GoToLoop]

Is there some exception handling in bash that could warn gracefully when it fails?

I dunno Bash yet. Still learning it along the way w/ the aid of an AI.

This is the line that installs all packages: "$VENV_PIP" install thonny thonny-py5mode[extras]

It's fully delegated to the chosen Python's pip and there's not much the Bash script can do about it.

So any connection errors will crash the whole script!

, would it be a good idea to ask if you want to install the py5[extras]?

It's already attempting getting the [extras]: "$VENV_PIP" install thonny thonny-py5mode[extras]

That is, as long as thonny-py5mode's "pyproject.toml" includes this extra config later:

[project.optional-dependencies]
extras = ["py5[extras]>=0.10.7a0"]

For now, there's a warning that [extras] isn't available. But still it gets the regular py5 package and its main dependencies.

[hx2A]

@villares @GoToLoop I just did some testing on both Windows and MacOS with the latest release candidate. In both cases I was able to install the plugin as a local file and it worked fine for both.

What are the blocking issues that are preventing us from doing a plugin release? I know there is an issue with Portable Thonny on Windows 10, but that is separate from the release.

I would like to do this release soon.

[villares]

I know there is an issue with Portable Thonny on Windows 10, but that is separate from the release.

Actually not a "portable Thonny" issue, any Thonny on some of the community center computers Windows 10 crash with py5 0.10.7a + earlier and new thonny-py5mode plug-ins
:(

Maybe we could warn people that it is not recommended for Windows 10? I really don't know what to do.

My guess is that it is the new jpype interacting with something the plug-in does. So with the most recent py5, which depends on the newest jpype, it crashes even on the previous plug-in.

[hx2A]

Maybe we could warn people that it is not recommended for Windows 10? I really don't know what to do.

I don't know either. I need to get my hands on a Windows 10 computer. Conveniently I will be in Brazil in 2 weeks, perhaps I could go with you to the community center and investigate in person? In the mean time, I will see if I can find a Windows 10 computer in the back of my closet somewhere.