[Tutor] Better (free) IDEs than IDLE for Linux ?

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

>  >>The best development environment for Linux(or any Unix) is 
> Linux itself.
> He's requesting a PYTHON IDE.

That's right and unix is an integrated development environment.
For any language, and much more powerful than many so called 
IDEs - like IDLE!

>  >>What exactly do you expect to gain using one of these "proper"
>  >>IDEs over a multi window setup in native Linux?
> 
> an interactive python development environment, 

Which is what unix is.

> VIM and emacs are editors (mostly) not interpreters for a specific 
> language, even though than can shell out and execute commands.

Both vim and emacs have support for specific languages.
But they are one of the tools unix provides. Unix provides 
many more - over 400 - all fully integrated. For example 
if I'm working on a multi file project I can(in either 
vim or emacs) run a grep and step through each found line
in each file in the project - try that in IDLE!
I can also run the code in my current buffer from within 
the editor and have the output captured into an editor buffer.
I can run the debugger and monitor the input, output and 
debug commands simultaneously - try that in IDLE! Similarly 
with the profiler. I can also monitor system usage, network 
stats, call trees, etc etc and version control the code. 
IDLE can't do any of these things either! Why use a partial 
toolset when you have the full set available?

> Under Windows many people use IDLE. It's an Python, IDE, not 
> an editor. Surely you understand the difference ?

Absolutely, under Windows I use IDLE and Pythonwin.
But under unix I use multiple xterms because its a more 
powerful IDE than any of the packaged IDEs. After all that 
was one of the main reasons unix became popular - it is the 
best, bar none, software development environment.

I ask again, what does a packaged IDE offer than a unix 
environment doesn't?

Alan g.
Author of the 'Learning to Program' web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld