My future Python IDE article

D

David Mertz

Pythonistas,

My loyal fans :) will remember that I did a Python IDE roundup for
_Charming Python_ a couple years back. Now I have another such roundup
lined up... not the very next article, but it's there on the list.

In the intervening years, I've hardly touched anything one might call an
IDE. I've looked at screenshots from time to time, and read various
announcements. But really I just use text editors and command lines.

Here's the thing: I probably have room to look at about four different
tools in one article. In fact, it wouldn't be absurd to only do three.
Past that, I cannot do more than list contact information and platform
in the available words. I'm sure there are more than four IDEs that
-someone- loves to work with out there... but I need to have a cutoff.

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

Yours, David...
 
D

Dialtone

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

This one is easy :).

My voting goes for:

1) Emacs + python-mode + ipython as interactive shell inside emacs +
speedbar as class browser (I use this... actually I use emacs for
everything :))

2) Eric3

3) Eclipse + Trustudio

4) Another one randomly

PS: Under windows my favourite is PythonWin
 
R

Rune

Here's the thing: I probably have room to look at about four different
tools in one article. In fact, it wouldn't be absurd to only do three.
Past that, I cannot do more than list contact information and platform
in the available words. I'm sure there are more than four IDEs that
-someone- loves to work with out there... but I need to have a cutoff.

At least you will have to comment the Komodo from ActiveState.

Rune
 
L

Lawrence Oluyede

Dialtone said:
3) Eclipse + Trustudio

Mmm i don't think so. IDLE is better :)
And i think that's not a great idea to use an IDE
that needs a JVM to run only to have syntax highlighting
and a not-so-smart indentation feature. For Trustudio you
need a JVM (~20 Mb) , Eclipse (~60Mb), Trustudio plugins
(~1.5 Mb)

For IDLE you need nothing :)

When Trustudio will become really useful, i think that'll
be the time to look at it, since Eclipse itself is awesome
for refactoring and Java coding
 
P

Peter Milliken

Dialtone said:
This one is easy :).

My voting goes for:

1) Emacs + python-mode + ipython as interactive shell inside emacs +
speedbar as class browser (I use this... actually I use emacs for
everything :))

I use the same Emacs configuration with the addition of ELSE (with the
python code templates for easy code input) and PyMacs (for extending Emacs
using Python).
 
C

Chris Reedy

David said:
So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

Boy, this is a hard one. I currently use IDLE for all my work, mostly
since it comes gratis with Python. For that reason I find myself wanting
to argue for its inclusion so I have a baseline for comparison.

Beyond that, I think the ones I'd be most interested in hearing about
would be eric3 and Komodo, mainly because those are ones where I've gone
to the trouble to look at their web pages.

Chris
 
L

Lawrence Oluyede

Peter Milliken said:
I use the same Emacs configuration with the addition of ELSE (with the
python code templates for easy code input) and PyMacs (for extending Emacs
using Python).

Cool! How does ELSE works? How could i setup Emacs to use it easily?

PyMacs? Wow :) I'll check it out tomorrow
 
P

Paul M

David said:
So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

Yours, David...

I think it would be great to focus on truly cross platform IDEs. I
regularly use Python on Win32, Linux, and Mac OS X, and I tend to prefer
editors that work on at least those platforms (more would be great!). I
imagine other people platform-hop a lot as well. And cross
platform-ness is definitely keeping with the spirit of python.

--Paul M.
 
P

Paul Paterson

<snip request for IDE suggestions>

Depending on how you want to define IDE, Leo would be my choice. I use it to
develop code, documentation, web pages as well as a arranging thoughts and
ideas in a structured way. For me, it is the best IDE because it integrates
with the way I think. The ability to represent the same information in
mutiple ways is a very powerful feature that I haven't seen matched in other
IDE's.

As a different spin on IDE's, Leo is definitely worth a look.

Paul
 
L

Luca Simonetti

My favorites IDEs:

1)Eric3 (despite a little work still to do) under Linux;
2)Pythonwin under Windows;
3)Komodo if I would buy one.
4)Pycrust is also a useful tool

Luca

--
+======================================================================+
Luca SIMONETTI
networks/systems manager
INSTITUTE OF THERMAL-FLUID DYNAMICS
ENEA "CASACCIA"
Via Anguillarese 301
00060 - R O M E
ITALY

Tel: +39 6 3048 4049
Fax: +39 6 3048 3026
E-Mail: (e-mail address removed)
+======================================================================+
 
J

Jacek Generowicz

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on
the list.

I'll have to sling in another vote for (X)Emacs.

Even if you were to use Emacs exclusively for Python development, it
already provides an excellent environment.

However, as you approach the limit where Emacs _is_ your opearting
system, the level of integration it provides is unsurpassable :)
 
R

rzed

David said:
Pythonistas,

My loyal fans :) will remember that I did a Python IDE roundup for
_Charming Python_ a couple years back. Now I have another such
roundup lined up... not the very next article, but it's there on
the list.

In the intervening years, I've hardly touched anything one might
call an IDE. I've looked at screenshots from time to time, and
read various announcements. But really I just use text editors and
command lines.

Here's the thing: I probably have room to look at about four
different tools in one article. In fact, it wouldn't be absurd to
only do three. Past that, I cannot do more than list contact
information and platform in the available words. I'm sure there
are more than four IDEs that
-someone- loves to work with out there... but I need to have a
cutoff.

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on
the list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should
this prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order
review copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

I hope you'll take a look at boa constructor. It's an interesting
project that is rapidly becoming better than just good.
 
?

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Gerhard_H=E4ring?=

Mike said:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Boa. I tryed Wing & Komodo, before finding
Boa.

Boa is far from finished. Depending on your wxPython version and how you
use the IDE, it could work surprisingly well or annoy you to no end in
my experience.

I'd recommend to not review alpha software like Boa.

-- Gerhard
 
A

Alan James Salmoni

Hi David,

Although a lot of posters have recommended Emacs (and maybe Vim too?),
I would avoid reviewing it (them) simply because it's been done so
many times already.

Personally, I would include:

1) SciTE - cross-platform, multi-language etc. It alters the font for
different elements of code (eg, comments are in one font, code in
another which, along with different colours, makes different sections
easy to locate - for me at least!).
2) Leo - I have tried to use this, but am not really up to speed with
it. However, it seems interesting, and like a previous poster said, it
could be used for many tasks. It seems quite powerful once it is
learned.

All the best!

Alan James Salmoni
SalStat Statistics
http://salstat.sunsite.dk
 
A

Aahz

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

I use vi, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I think you should
include IDLE because there have been so many improvements with Python 2.3
(running code in a separate process, if nothing else), and it is the
standard IDE that comes with Python. That would make three + IDLE for
your article, and you can get started on IDLE now.
 
?

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Gerhard_H=E4ring?=

Alan said:
Personally, I would include:

1) SciTE [...]
2) Leo [...]

Neither one is an IDE (they lack a debugger). They're only editors.

-- Gerhard
 
W

Waldemar Osuch

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

One should not forget about Boa Constructor
(http://boa-constructor.sourceforge.net/). It is very feature rich.
- it is not only editor/debugger but also GUI builder.
- integrates with exisiting Python tools like PyChecker, Bicycle
Repair Man, cyclops etc.
- automatically generated documentation and UML view.
- Zope debugger.
It is also crossplatform

Waldemar Osuch
 
R

R.Marquez

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

I work on Windows mostly, and Pythonwin has been great for a few
years, although it doesn't have any GUI building facilities. Lately,
due to a bug in the last release (which I have already submitted), I
have taken the opportunity to give others a try. I am not currently
interested in paying for an IDE.

I tried BOA a little while ago. My first impression was "wow, someone
has done a lot of work here". However, I didn't like the fact that I
had to mold my code to the way the application wants it. For example,
I have to always have a "main" function. Maybe that is a good
practice, but being forced to it didn't give me a good feeling. The
code it generated for the GUI was a bit verbose and it... I don't
know. It just didn't seem to simplify things for me too much. I
probably should go back and give it another try one of these days.

Idle is nice enough, although like Pythonwin, it doesn't have any GUI
building facilities. Surprisingly for me, I couldn't find some basic
features for simple code editing that I really like. For example, I
couldn't find a way to have white space visible. It also doesn't seem
to have an indentation guide feature, which I find very useful in
Pythonwin (this feature seems to me to be a must for a Python code
editor since indentation is so crucial in it). Also, I could not see
how to display line numbers (although it does have a "Go to line"
feature).

I was surprised to find all of these features as well as most other
features that I expected for basic code editing on the PythonCard
prototype Code Editor. And, PythonCard is an actual Application
builder, with outstanding GUI building facilities and all. I think
that PythonCard has the potential to be the best IDE/App Builder for
Python. It uses wxPython as its foundation, which I think is most GUI
developers favorite *free* toolkit. Unfortunately, a lot of the
wxPython widgets have yet to be integrated. However, it is already
usable for simple GUI applications. So, if you haven't given a try I
would encourage you to do so. You may just see what I mean.

I still like Pythonwin as my favorite Code Editor in Windows. But,
until my little bug is fixed I think I am sticking with PythonCard's
Code Editor.

-Ruben
 
U

Ulrich Petri

David Mertz said:
Pythonistas,

So c.l.py readers... make the case for your favorite one getting on the
list. I have a while to ponder the opinions advanced, should this
prompt some discussion (it may take a little while to order review
copies of commercial tools and/or get things installed).

You should definitely consider Boa-Constructor (be sure to use at least v.
0.23, better yet the recent cvs version).
IMHO its the most "complete" python IDE at the moment.

Ciao Ulrich
 
P

Peter Milliken

Hi Lawrence,

I am the author of ELSE (one of the reasons I like using it with Emacs :)).
You can find it at http://www.zipworld.com.au/~peterm (along with templates
for other languages). There is an extensive users guide at the site (but
since most people don't like documentation I would suggest that you browse
the section on Installation, the section on "Default Keybindings" and have a
look at the Tutorial section on using ELSE - these three sections that
should get you up an going)

If you need any assistance just drop me an email, I am more than happy to
provide support etc.

Peter
 

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