IDE Question

[Jorgen Grahn]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:02:45 -0700 (PDT), jdd <jeremiah.dodds at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 15, 1:19 pm, "Steve Phillips" <steve... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>> I am just wondering what seems to be the most popular IDE. The reason
>> I ask is I am currently at war with myself when it comes to IDE's. It
>> seems like every one I find and try out has something in it that
>> others don't and viceversa. I am in search for the perfect IDE and
>> after many months of searching, I always come back to IDLE to do what
>> I need to do. I want to use Komodo badly but the one issue I have with
>> that is sometimes the auto-complete works and other times it doesn't.
>> Even if I carbon copy a script.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Steve P
>
> I would personally recommend that you take the time to learn your way
> around a powerful text editor such as emacs or vim (I use emacs,
> myself), however that may not fit well with your personal editing
> tastes, and the learning curve is a bit steep. The editing tastes
> problem can be solved once you learn your way around a powerful text
> editor (emacs, for instance, is practically infinitely customizable),
> and the power you get from using them is amazing.

I agree.  And the reason is this: learning to use a text editor well
takes years -- meaning that after years you still learn new things
that help you type better/faster/with less strain on your ancles.  You
don't want that to be tied to programming Python.

    To pick an example: what Emacs calls dabbrev-expand. You type a
    few letters of a word, call on dabbrev-expand, and cycle through
    words in your open files which start with those letters. This is
    very useful in Python code, but it's equally useful when writing
    mail, C code, documentation ...

Most people I've seen programming use their editor as if it was
Windows Notepad. It's easy to get an advantage over them, by being
willing to learn a bit. (The downside is that watching them program
will be like watching someone trying to ride a bike with flat tyres ...)

/Jorgen

-- 
  // Jorgen Grahn <grahn@        Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/     snipabacken.se>          R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!