My future Python IDE article

Kevin Altis altis at semi-retired.com
Thu Aug 28 02:15:09 EDT 2003


"David Mertz" <mertz at gnosis.cx> wrote in message
news:mailman.1061920192.21278.python-list at python.org...
> 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...

So, I guess the key question is what features are required to be considered
an IDE? If you're simply talking about an editor with an integrated debugger
then there is a lot to choose from and certainly IDLE (formerly IDLEfork
should be included) just for completeness. Based on the responses to c.l.py
a lot of people seem to think vim and Emacs qualify as IDEs, but those would
probably be best covered in their own articles. Just out of curiosity, I
checked the "definition" of an IDE.


http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=interactive%20development%20environ
ment

One thing I've found quite interesting about Python is that when I started
using it I was disappointed in the debugger support, since I was used to
more elaborate systems from my compiled language days. There is also the pro
blem that many Python editors/IDEs including the old IDLE couldn't debug GUI
code if the IDE used a different toolkit than your app (tkinter, win32,
wxPython, Qt, etc.) Then I realized that at least for the kind of GUI work I
do the debugger fell into the YAGNI category and I end up doing most of my
exploration in the shell at runtime or using print or log statements for
other bits. It will be interesting to see whether the ability to set
breakpoints and do other debugger sorts of things becomes more important to
me in the future.

Some people seem to think an IDE means integrated layout capabilities. That
would narrow the field considerably. Boa should be considered in your
selections regardless of whether its wxPython GUI capabilities are needed.

PythonCard, at least in its current form doesn't really qualify as an IDE
since the codeEditor is just a source editor, it doesn't have a debugger and
it is not integrated with the resourceEditor which handles layouts. A future
version will have a more integrated environment.

ka





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