[Pythonmac-SIG] IDE that doesn't look awful?

[Joe Strout]

On Oct 20, 2008, at 3:59 PM, Kevin Walzer wrote:

> WingIDE is written using PyGtk, not wxPython. So yeah, it's an ugly  
> X11 app.

Ah, that explains it.

> There are lots of Python-aware editors out there (i.e. with syntax  
> awareness) but nothing as slick as Xcode is for Cocoa development,  
> and certainly nothing else with an integrated GUI builder (unless  
> you are writing a PyObjC app, in which case Xcode is probably your  
> best bet).

I don't expect an integrated GUI builder at this point.  The main  
feature I'd really like is code completion, which Xcode only sort-of  
does, but I think it could be done better.

> Komodo is a fairly robust editor and has both free and commercial  
> editions; it's built on Mozilla, so doesn't look perfectly native,  
> but it is better than WingIDE. A lot of folks on this list swear by  
> Vim or Emacs (Aquamacs is a very nice Emacs variant optimized for  
> Mac UI conventions).

=P  I hadn't heard of Aquamacs, but even so, I remember Emacs from my  
college days, and I'm pretty sure it's not what I'm looking for.

For reference, my favorite text editor is TextWrangler (or if I'm  
feeling spendy, BBEdit) -- it's beautifully written with great  
attention to detail, and is designed with the Mac ethos through and  
through.  But while it can syntax-color Python code just fine and  
provide a simple function pop-up, it doesn't do any code completion.   
That's really a must-have feature for me, given my propensity to make  
typos, and Python's propensity to cheerfully accept them until the  
code is actually exercised.

> I actually just use plain old IDLE. It's had some basic Mac UI  
> adaptations, and works nicely for me. But then, I use Tk/Tkinter as  
> my GUI toolkit, so I actually prefer to use a Tk-based app as a  
> reference point (for both good and bad aspects).

I'd like to try IDLE, but it isn't included in the standard Mac  
installation, and I'm reluctant to install MacPython just to get it.   
On the other hand, I do have other Tkinter apps (like NLTK) working  
just fine, so maybe I could just download IDLE by itself and give it a  
try.

On the third hand, I have a feeling that my own apps are going to be  
either Cocoa or wx (or some Frankensteinian hybrid of both), so given  
the choice, I'd prefer a wx-based IDE for the same reason that you  
prefer a Tk-based one.

Thanks,
- Joe