Which IDE is recommended?

Brian Beck exogen at gmail.com
Wed Apr 27 11:28:04 EDT 2005


monkey wrote:
> Read through python site for programming tool, really plenty of choices :-)
> (For c++, I just can't breath with very very limited choices)
> 
> Tried Spe, it come with wxGlade built-in very nice(is Spe still actively
> develop?). But seem that Boa Constructor and PyDev(the plug-in for Eclipse)
> also worth looking. Actually which one are you guys using? and why? I think
> it is also valuable for those who are new to python as me.

Here's been my experience:

* Don't underestimate IDLE, it's surprisingly capable considering it's
just a dinky little thing

* PyDev isn't yet mature enough to make it practical for me

* SPE has great features, but the pure-Python-ness makes it slow! Even
just typing at a steady pace is slowed down due to all the name lookups.
Plus, I still haven't found a way to reset the built-in Python shell, so
if you run/import your module into it, you have to reload the entire app
to reuse the shell. del <module-name> doesn't help because the classes
will still be in the registry

* WingIDE is the most advanced by far, but isn't free. Its built-in
Python shell also suffers from not easily being able to test _the module
you're writing_ without a bunch of path switching. I remember the
interface feeling slow on Windows, but on Linux everything is snappy.
The quickness of the autocompletion for even seperate module members
amazes me

* If you're running KDE, KDevelop is very capable. The autocompletion is
very generic though, it'll happily complete any word you've typed
before. The auto-indentation isn't nearly as spot-on as WingIDE's

* I hate PythonWin or whatever it's called. Dunno what more to say

--
Brian Beck
Adventurer of the First Order



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