refactoring, unit testing, ant, etc.

[Dave Rose]

Hello all
  I've been learning Python for the past few months, reading tutorials and 
postings here.  I've bought the personal Komodo then downloaded Eclipse with 
Pydev.  IDLE also is a staple of everyday use.

  ~10 years ago, I had CS as a minor in college.  I learned some C and modula-2 
to name the relevent languages.  Back then I was compiling on a VAX.  Much 
different than today.

  I was hoping someone could guide me a bit with current-day practices.  I've 
been pythoning along, but I hear about things I don't know about (re-factoring, 
unit-testing, debugging, ant build tools) and I don't know how they're 
applicable to make my life easier.  Tutorials didn't shed too much light -- 
they make it seem to be more work than I need now.

  To be clear, I've used debuggers in the past, but it seems when I set break-
points, the Eclipse just skips merrily past them, or steps at every line, and 
for wxPython, that's annoying given all the support libraries.  I also use 
wxPython and wxGlade, so those seem to ignore debug mode completely for some 
reason.

  Can someone please shed some light onto how I should really use my IDE to 
make my life more enjoyable?  I feel I just don't know how to use the tools 
that are available, and that's frustrating.

Thanks so much!
Dave