Outer Web Thought Log
January 13, 2003
Python IDEs - which one to choose?
As I'm slowly (very!) trying to absorb some of my new Python books, I start longing for a decent IDE or editor -of-sorts. Java-developers are spoiled with IntelliJ and Eclipse, whereas Python IDEs have a longer way to go IMO. Or they have a confusing interface, or an old, very Motif-like look-and-feel, none of them do syntax completion in the IntelliSense way, and some of them have reported stability problems. There seems to be a Python plugin for Eclipse, but to be honest, I don't want to follow the Eclipse-hype ATM, nor does the Python plugin seems to be very appealing to me. Of course, ActiveState has a VS.Net add-on for Python, and the code-completion doesn't seem to suck, but the requirement of VS.Net being installed seems like a bit too much overhead to me. If anyone has any idea re: Python IDEs, just give a yell.
Posted by stevenn at January 13, 2003 12:38 PM ()
Comments

http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo/

Posted by: Sam Ruby at January 13, 2003 01:43 PM

The PythonWin IDE that comes with Activestate's Python seems pretty good if you're developing on Windows. I recently went through this search myself, but looking for an IDE that would run on Linux. I didn't like the feel of Komodo, and I didn't want to pay for one of the more expensive commercial IDEs like Wing, so I settled on Eclipse with the Python plugin from http://www.kalab.com/freeware/pythoneclipse/pythoneclipse.htm.
All it does is syntax highlighting at the moment, no debugging (which is what I had been hoping for). So I edit in Eclipse, and run/debug in a shell window.

Posted by: Abe Fettig at January 13, 2003 01:56 PM

Good one, Sam: http://www.activestate.com/Corporate/People/Tech_Board.html#sam ;-)

Posted by: Steven Noels at January 13, 2003 02:01 PM

I've been using eric for development on my project for a few weeks now, and have been very impressed. The debugging environment works very well.

http://www.die-offenbachs.de/detlev/eric3.html

Posted by: Bill Mill at April 16, 2003 03:14 PM

There are quite a lot of IDE's available for Python.

Curiously open-source ones seem to gain preference and from what I read in the web the community prefers them.
Check out:

SPE - my favourit with wxGlade "integrated" for GUI design (quite an IDE - lots of "hidden" features: PyCheck,PyNanny...), sintaxt highlight, code tips,...

wxDesigner -> GUI design and a little RAD (very good!!)

Boa Constructor - full featured IDE (Delphi style) still a little imature (soon suport for wxPython/wxWindows sizers)

PythonWin -> very nice, but very Windoze and no GUI designer (access to MFC)

Haven't checked but show promise:
Eric
Eclipse (maybe in the future)

I've been working hard ;-)

mjekl -

Posted by: mjekl at December 23, 2003 09:57 PM