Best Python editor (under Linux)

[Geoff Gerrietts]

I don't want to add fuel to an already outrageous fire, but the issue
is of some interest to me.

Comments on the Issue at Hand
-----------------------------
  I use vim (gvim), because I'm very productive with it, and not so
  productive when I've tried to use emacs. That's mostly due to habit,
  I'm sure.

  I always recommend to new people that they learn only enough vi to
  get by, and learn emacs as their first real editor. I don't think
  emacs is better, but I do think that emacs is a lot more accessible
  to people raised on Notepad and Word. Often, I will recommend that
  people learn pico first, just to have something they can get work
  done in while trying to get emacs under their fingers.

  I have a .emacs file that I carry around with me, just so I can help
  people like that get started. It's not great, because I don't use
  emacs regularly, but it gets the job done, gets them started. So
  far, of the people I've tried to help that way, only one continues
  to use emacs regularly. The rest were unswayed by my argument that
  emacs was as good, and chose to learn vim. I don't understand why;
  my bias may be distorting my message.

  I have lots of gimmicks for vim, and use lots of its features. It's
  a large editor now, doing syntax highlighting and reasonably good
  auto-indentation, and extensible. All these things add up to weaken
  any argument I might make that gvim is smaller, or more focussed,
  than emacs: both have expanded to fill much of the same area. While
  emacs certainly has more plumbing, gvim is no longer the svelte
  beast that was once vi. I won't be the one to throw stones....

My Particular Interest (Help Please!)
-------------------------------------
  Now, I've said that I don't recommend you follow me down the vim
  path, because I think emacs is more accessible and pretty much
  equivalent in the power department. But let's assume you have, and
  you use vim under X (gvim) pretty regularly. Let's also assume that
  your vim has python support compiled in, and you're on vim 6.0 or
  better.

  A few months ago, I downloaded the python.vim files from
  sourceforge, and I've since modified them to do their job better.
  I've (I think) improved the IM-Python menu considerably, and I have
  gvim hiding and displaying the Python/IM-Python menus when you
  switch into a buffer that isn't Python.

  And I need people to help me test it. I've already handed the files
  out to all my friends, but not all of us are working in Python every
  day. Meanwhile, the Python I get to work on isn't terribly OO, so
  I'm a little concerned that different styles might break the code.

  So, if you're the sort of person who uses gvim, and you're
  interested in playing around with this, please drop me an email.
  I'll ship you a tarball and install instructions (trivial) and we'll
  see how it goes! (Windows users are welcome, too, it appears to work
  for me there!)

Thanks,
--G.

-- 
Geoff Gerrietts             "People talk fundamentals and superlatives 
<geoff at gerrietts net>     and then make some changes of detail." 
http://www.gerrietts.net                  --Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr