Autocompletion and Interactive Tables in a Python IDE

[s0suk3 at gmail.com]

On Jul 23, 4:28 pm, Anthony <ajdam... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, I'm a FoxPro programmer, but I want to learn python before it's
> too late.  I do a lot of statistical programming, so I import SPSS
> into python.  In my opinion, the best features of Visual FoxPro 9.0
> were:
> a) Intellisense (tells you what classes/methods are available and what
> variables go into a function)
> b) Code Completion (guesses your code after four letters)
> c) Data-Orientation; multiple data sessions can be open, data can be
> viewed easily
>
> Python's IDLE has only half of the first of these features.  I did a
> lot of searching and found the PyDev extensions for Eclipse's Python
> IDE, and found that they've got Intellisense.  I'm still missing b and
> c, and am getting extremely frustrated programming so slowly..
>
> So two questions:
> Is there any package, gui, IDE, anything that will do FoxPro-style
> code completion?  If it works in Eclipse, even better..
> I can't find a good screenshot, but here's a better description:
> You type "BROW" and it pops up a window that says "BROWSE" ..at this
> point if you hit enter it completes the word..
>
> and
>
> How can I view open SPSS data in one of the Python GUIs?  Again,
> Eclipse would be the preference.
> Here's an example of how I'd like to browse the data:http://www.vfpconversion.com/ArticleImage.aspx?QuickID=0209071&Image=...
> I don't want to have to switch back and forth between Python and SPSS
> while I'm programming; I just want to stay in one of them..
>
> What can I do?  I feel extremely inefficient when I don't have these
> three features..
>

You're looking at it the wrong way. A programming language's strength
is not the availability if IDEs that exist for it. It might be a bit
convenient, depending on the circumstances,  but it is, by no means,
what makes a language a good language, because it's actually not a
property of the language itself. And if you're new to any programming
language in particular, that's actually the lesser of the things you
should be worrying about.

However, when you become more experienced and need to be more
productive, that might be problem. It's a shame that there aren't as
much IDEs for Python as there are for, e.g., Java or C++. I usually
use Komodo. Then there's the one you mentioned, Eclipse. You'll
probably get more replies mentioning a lot of others, but what I think
I should point out is that you seem to be overrating the importance of
it.

Sebastian