Best Cross-Platform, GUI Editor/IDE For Python?

What do you find is the best text editor for Python software development? I've tried several, and I'm always frustrated by the limitations of each. Eclipse is cool, but it's huge, and I've had multiple problems with corruption of the workspace. It got so bad at one point that every week or so I was tearing it down and recreating it. I spent so much time re-creating Eclipse's workspace that I found any productivity gains were lost due to Eclipse's brokenness. (Read more below.)

Morgan Greywolf continues: "I've also done the Emacs thing. Emacs is cool, but I found that I missed code browsing. So then I installed the Emacs Code Browser, Semantic and associated elisp code and found that it didn't work right half the time. I also seem to prefer either vi/Vim style editors, CUA-style editors, or WordStar-style editors.

Unfortunately, there are no GUI WordStar-style editors and none of them are cross-platform with Windows.

So, that left me with Scintilla/SCiTE. Which is nice, but, the code browsing doesn't seem to be able do autocomplete with PyGTK (to be fair, Eclipse's didn't work so well, either in that regard, at least not on the default Ubuntu install)

SCiTE loads fast, does nice Python highlighting, and has the ability to run code right from the browser. Unforutnately, unlike Eclipse or Emacs, there's no ability to do step/trace style debugging. *sigh*

So, okay, does anyone have any other ideas?"

Comments

Some of what I've looked at and use

[stoolpigeon]

komodo edit is an extremely powerful editor that works with a slew of languages on Windows, Mac and Linux. It is free as in beer. It is packaged by ActiveState as just an editor - but really it has many features that fall more into the IDE camp - yet it is light-weight and responsive - more like an editor. This review of komodo edit may be helpful.
 
  Komodo IDE is the big brother to Komodo edit I guess. I've never used it because the cost is outside my budget. ($295 for a full single user license - there is a student version but I don't know what it costs)
 
  SPE is free/free I believe. It is multiplatform and the price is right to at least give it a try.
 
All these and more are listed on the python ide page of the python.org wiki.
 
Personally - right now I use Komodo edit while I wait for python support in netbeans.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[SupplyMission]

I second the opinion on Komodo Edit. It does Python, and also Perl, PHP, Javascript, HTML, and too many more to count.

It also has syntax highlighting, code browsing, class structure trees, advanced search and replace, advanced editing features, etc. It's hands down the best free code editor available.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[bjkinney]

I'll also add the recommendation for Komodo Edit. I'm still learning to use it(and I'm not a professional programmer) but so far I find that it works pretty well and it doesn't get in my way as much as some of the other editor/IDE's I've tried.

Since it's free I'd say it's at least worth a try.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[Dystopian Rebel]

I like Active State and I like what Komodo Edit is trying to do but I find it and Komodo IDE too slow.

Gedit, Gvim and Scite are quick. If I need to run a complicated RegEx, I will open the file in Komodo Edit, do the deed, and quit.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[drpimp]

Komodo Edit, as stated above is very nice. The free version though, does not include the debugger. Komodo Edit vs. Komodo IDE. I use Komodo IDE for Python and PHP (w/xdebug). Not to mention being able to change vars on the fly and re-step over some code is always nice. It is rather expensive, but worth the money. The only pet peeve I have is that there are sometimes tabbing and spacing issues that you can configure from the settings, but they take a few times to get them right. I am on a slightly older version and I haven't updated to the latest so this could be a non-issue now. SPE is kind of nice too. I can't remember at the moment why I liked Komodo better, but then again I am still "evaluating" Komodo :-)

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[khanyisa]

Agreed, Komodo rocks. Just a correction - Komodo Edit is now free as in speech as well (they started calling it Open Komodo then changed the name back) - all the source is available under the MPL I think

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[khanyisa]

And before I forget - Komodo does things I've seen no other editor do as well, like syntax highlighting and autocompletion on code from one format embedded inside others (e.g. CSS code with XHTML, Python code embedded in HTML templates, etc, etc)

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[hey!]

For me, at least, the dividing line between an editor and an IDE is refactoring support. It's really the only must-have feature, although if you do have it its pretty nice to have a convenient source control interface.

I started back around 1980 using emacs. Historically, the IDE became important as the need for Windows programmers outstripped the supply of competent programmers. It was hard enough dealing with Windows, but put MFC on top of that and there was a lot of baloney you had to learn. The IDE, framework and preprocessor were tied together in truly appalling ways when you consider how simple it is to do corresponding things in toolkits like GTK or wxWidgets. It's one of the reasons I never became a Win32 programmer, it was just aesthetically loathsome.

Eclipse was the first IDE that sold me on the idea of an IDE, and it was refactoring support alone that did it. I otherwise found Eclipse to be a bit overcomplicated given its generic but malleable nature. Netbeans on the other hand was too sluggish in the early days; I don't like having my thought processes held up. It seems OK on modern hardware. They both offer excellent refactoring support.

Without refactoring support, I'd still be using emacs or even vim. There's less reason to use emacs than back in the days of character terminals where it provided something like a desktop. I still use emacs for its macro capabilities when dealing with large data files. I should probably use PERL rather than a mixture of emacs an awk, but y'know. Old dogs.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[beef3k]

Parts of Komodo Edit has now been opensourced it seems, check out http://www.openkomodo.com/ (don't know the state of this project though, just noticed)

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[HeronBlademaster]

Just to provide some perspective from the other side of the fence (I'm primarily a Win32 programmer)... The biggest issue for me is intellisense (do they call that autocompletion in the OSS world?). Yeah, Visual C++ 6.0 spoiled me. I've been training myself to use a plain editor lately (since I've done more Linux programming in recent days).

So when I ask around for an IDE, I'm mostly asking for three things (in order of least to greatest importance):

1. Can it run the language's compiler/interpreter without having to switch to a command prompt?
2. Does it have an integrated debugger for the language?
3. Does it have intellisense for at least the standard libraries and the currently loaded project?

Maybe it means my brain is broken - but I have pulled up cppreference.com hundreds of times because I couldn't remember some little thing like the order of parameters to a function, or what exactly some flag is named. Intellisense solves that problem quickly by simply showing me as I type what the parameters are that I need.

A bonus for me in an IDE, now that I'm trying to switch over to Linux (or at least cross-platform) programming, would be support for makefiles. I'd still like to be able to run make from the command line... There was one that I used briefly that did pretty much all of this (Intellisense, makefiles, integration with GDB, automatic in-IDE compilation) but I don't remember what it's called. I think it started with an A...

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[hey!]

Well, pretty much every IDE will do everything you ask and then some. Many extensible programmer's editors like JEdit (and obviously emacs) do too. It's been possible to edit/compile/debug/build in emacs for almost thirty years now.

So, no, we in the non-Win32 world don't have to reach of the manual every time we need an API; we don't have to switch consoles to go between debugging and editing; we don't have to leave the editor to do a compile.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[HeronBlademaster]

I didn't say you needed to reach for the manual all the time, I just said that *I* did/do ;)

I'm still somewhat unfamiliar with cross-platform IDEs, and my first tentative foray into Linux-based IDEs was several years ago (before Intellisense-like systems had made it in to OSS projects), so I just thought I'd give some perspective. I'm glad that most IDEs will do what I need nowadays though.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[Gulthek]

Textmate does that, great feature.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[RotHorseKid]

Textmate so rocks the house. Too bad it's OSX only, it was one of my switching reasons, an editor that actually increases your productivity.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[khanyisa]

Cool! Not being on OSX, I've never tried TextMate

In Komodo you can also define your own languages for syntax highlight and autocompletion, including the nesting.

Re:Some of what I've looked at and use

[Dr. Smoove]

I took a couple online courses and qualified for the student version, because I had a verifiable student ID that showed I was still a student. It was 50 bucks I think and well worth it, it has vi emulation, and a pretty awesome debugger. The guy(s) who made it made a protocol for communicating with *any* debugger outside of KDE, so theoretically you can write an add-on for komodo that does C, and integrates its awesome debugging capabilities. I was going to do it because at the time I was also doing a lot of C but I just had no spare time to hack at it. It IS a bit of a resource hog but what IDE of that magnitude isn't? I've used them all and find Eclipse too complex and slow and Netbeans I felt about the same. Visual * is actually not too bad if you're in Windows-land, but most of the time I am writing dynamic/interpreted stuff on Linux.

Visual Studio

[Anonymous Coward]

How is IronPython?

Re:Visual Studio

[Malevolyn]

Actually, the one time I tried it, it managed to break everything and not work at all. But I had C Python installed in parallel, so that could have been the reason. However, C Python + Jython doesn't have that problem, so who knows.

Wingware

[Otter]

Wing IDE, although I usually just work in Kate.

Re:Wingware

[vio]

I second that -- Wing IDE is a pretty slick environment, a couple of my developers really love it. Its quite *fast* (faster than Komodo -- at debugging especially... well, it was when I benched them), has a lot of useful features, and is MADE FOR PYTHON (unlike Eclipse, emacs, etc).

Sadly, its not free...

Re:Wingware

[ranulf]

I too discovered Wingware when I tried out a few IDEs for Python. It was by far the best of the ones I tried, and they even let you use it free on open source projects... Well worth trying out.

Re:Wingware

[stoolpigeon]

Do you have a link for the free on open source projects? I'm looking but all I can find is that Wing IDE 101 is free - but it is missing most of the features of the other versions.

Re:Wingware

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been using wingware for a couple months now and I love it, but I wish it had better integration with things like Mercurial - is there some way to get them to play nice with each other?

Re:Wingware

[MarcoAtWork]

check the prices page, it explains it quite well

http://www.wingware.com/store/prices

Re:Wingware

[MountainLogic]

I'd have to agree that Wing is a nice, solid, thin and clean solution. There is a free limited version and a low cost (about $35 IIRC) full version.

Re:Wingware

[dedazo]

Seconded. Though I trade Kate for Vim with pychecker mapped to :make. I find Vim is just fine for this, except when I have to debug something, in which case the $60 I paid for Wing IDE are more than justified.

I tried both Eric and Komodo and I think they're perfect in every way (perhaps Komodo a bit more so) except for the fact that they're desperately slow on both Linux and Windows. Same goes for Eclipse+PyDev.

Re:Wingware

[stoolpigeon]

Thank you - missed that.

Re:Wingware

[Daimaou]

I second this. I think Wingware is the best Python IDE available. It is a bit costly though. I also like PyDev-extensions for Eclipse, but not anywhere near as much.

In spite of all that, I mostly use TextEdit for all my editing needs.

Re:Wingware

[3.2.3]

I second Wing. The Wingware guys give fantastic service. They contibute hugely to the Python community. And Wing is just a freaking great Python IDE. SVN integration is nice. Stack monitor is nice. In-stackframe interpreter is golden. Zope/Plone integration is nice. Completely love it. I have a 3 OS license and use it all the time on all three.

Komodo

[BitterOldGUy]

If you have $300

Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Notepad.

Vi/Vim!

[thedak]

Vi/Vim/GVim!

Re:Vi/Vim!

[orkybash]

With the TagList plugin for Vim, you can even open a list of functions/classes/methods in your file in the sidebar.

Re:Vi/Vim!

[Anonymous Coward]

nvi/nvi/nvi

Re:Vi/Vim!

[Lord Ender]

How well does vi do autocomplete?

Re:Vi/Vim!

[martinw89]

With C / C++ it does really good. It looks in headers etc. and gives a good recommendation.

For Python, eh, not so good. I may not have it set up correctly but I only get recommendations based on what I've already typed. It won't look in modules etc.

Re:Vi/Vim!

[fxkr]

vim calls it 'omnicompletion', and if set up correctly it will look in modules.
Add the following to your .vimrc, then use Ctrl-X Ctrl-O in insert mode:
autocmd FileType python set omnifunc=pythoncomplete#Complete

Re:Vi/Vim!

[martinw89]

Yeah I realized later that due to some internal Python problems omnicomplete wasn't being activated for Python. It's a long story that only seems to apply to my system (probably some file corruption)

Why would you want to edit a snake?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's much easier to edit a letter than an animal.

Seriously though, one of the links on this page may lead you to what you seek.

Seems like you're on windows

[self assembled struc]

I love TextMate on the Mac.

There is a "version" for windows:
http://www.e-texteditor.com/

Have you tried that yet? Its got a free trial at the least.

Emacs

[Just Some Guy]

Emacs with python.el. Seriously, I'd never be without it. Not only does it have indentation and syntax highlighting perfectly nailed, but it gives you lots of niceties like an interface to pylint and etags for smart completion, but all the "standard" Emacs stuff like the ability to edit files that are only reachable by obscure methods SSHing to the firewall, sudoing to another user, SSHing to the final destination, and sudoing to root.

Rally, there's no substitute.

Re:Emacs

[Just Some Guy]

I left out an important bit here:

I know you had problems with Emacs, but my point was that you might be better off fixing them than trying to find something else with similar functionality.

Re:Emacs

[FooAtWFU]

Rally, there's no substitute.

Actually, VersionOne works as a Rally substitute.

:P

Re:Emacs

[BrokenHalo]

I know you had problems with Emacs, but my point was that you might be better off fixing them than trying to find something else with similar functionality.

Indeed. My personal opinion is that emacs beats every text editor (yes, even vi - sorry) for just about every function I ever use it for.

I resisted it for about a decade after we got rid of our punch-cards, since at the time TECO was the ultimate in text editors, but eventually emacs won me over long after it ceased to be simply a pile of macros bolted on to TECO.

Re:Emacs

[Anonymous Coward]

With respect to emacs code browsing: Check out etags. find-tag and find-tag-other-window are a godsend. (My makefiles are setup to easily recreate the TAGS file.)

Re:Emacs

[Just Some Guy]

Don't all Makefiles have a "tags" target? :-)

Re:Emacs

[geminidomino]

Indeed. My personal opinion is that emacs beats every text editor (yes, even vi - sorry) for just about every function I ever use it for.
 

I agree 100%

Of course, if I ever used emacs for anything, that would probably change. ;)

Re:Emacs

[jgrahn]

With respect to emacs code browsing: Check out etags. find-tag and find-tag-other-window are a godsend. (My makefiles are setup to easily recreate the TAGS file.)

So that was what the submitter meant when he talked about "code browsing"? Or maybe not, but that doesn't matter -- when I combine (a) TAGS support, (b) pydoc in a terminal window on the side, (c) unit tests in another terminal window and (d) paper and pencil, I don't feel I miss out on anything; I am not limited by the computer's ability to show me the stuff I am working with.

That is partly because Python code tends to be brief and elegant.

Also note that vi also supports TAGS/tags files. I hope all serious code editors do either that, or have a very good reason to use some other file format for symbol -> file:line mapping.

peppy sounds interesting

[glop]

Hi,

Personally I write Python code in Vi or Emacs but I noticed Peppy.

Peppy uses Scintilla, is inspired by Emacs and is fully extensible in Python. This looks like fun!
See http://peppy.flipturn.org/

I have tried a Python IDE called Eric but it takes too much screen space on my EEE PC.

Finally, I will probably try the Netbeans editor when Netbeans 6.5 is out.

Eric

[sikity]

T
http://www.die-offenbachs.de/eric/index.html

nedit

[FunkyELF]

Nedit is good. I think it works on Windows through cygwin. Some features that make it stand out are good macro programming, regular expression support, and rectangular selection, deletion, and pasting.

Re:nedit

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, no, none of those features makes it stand out. The absence of any of them would make it stand out as a particularly poor text editor.

What makes nedit stand out is that it's the only cross-platform Unixy text editor that (a) has all this basic functionality built in, and (b) really works well with CUA-type keybindings. If you like that, then it's a good one to consider. Otherwise stick with Emacs, which does all that, much more, and runs natively on Windows.

Re:nedit

[spir0]

just looked at their web page. last news update was 2005. the last version (5.5) is dated 2004.

is it a dead project?

A few different options:

[apathy maybe]

This page has a list: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PythonIde (including some mentioned above).

It also mentions http://www.die-offenbachs.de/eric/index.html which is Free (speech and beer).

Personally, I use Gedit (though I know it's not cross platform). But there's a question. Why do you have to use the same editor on each platform? Are you moving around often enough that it becomes an issue?

Re:A few different options:

[BrokenHalo]

Gedit is indeed cross-platform, since it is FOSS stuff built around the GTK+ and GNOME libraries, and as such can be compiled for just about any platform. The drawback is, of course, that all those libraries are much bigger than the editor itself...

Re:A few different options:

[Haeleth]

But there's a question. Why do you have to use the same editor on each platform? Are you moving around often enough that it becomes an issue?

I don't know about you, but I have several computers on my desk, and the number multiplies considerably if you take VMs and remote servers into account, running a wide variety of different operating systems.

When you're developing cross-platform software, you'd be stupid not to test it on as many platforms as possible. And when you're testing software on a platform, it's really much more convenient to edit the code on the same platform you're testing it on, instead of constantly copying it back and forwards.

I consider it a great advantage of the editor I use that it runs equally well on all those platforms, using the same configuration files so all my preferences are always there, and letting me just get on with the job of editing instead of constantly having to try to remember what feature's in which menu or what keys to press to get it. My life has become much simpler since I abandoned the Windows-only editor I used to love...

SPE

[nbharatvarma]

I prefer Stani's Python Editor (SPE) when I work on OSX or Ubuntu.
On Windows (even though SPE runs on it) I prefer PyScripter simply because that was the first IDE I used for python on Windows and I am fine with it.

Both the IDEs have syntax checkers - this is especially useful if you write some of your code on an editor like vim/emacs/gedit etc. and want to start editing that code in IDEs.

My advice is to choose an IDE and stick with it. Avoid shifting IDEs for python because of the indentation requirement and how each IDE might handle it differently.

Erics Python IDE, Wing IDE, Komodo. In that order.

[Qbertino]

Erics Python IDE

Wing IDE

Komodo

If you're hell-bent on using an Editor, I can warmly recommend jEdit for Python stuff. It's the best Editor in existance.

And one more thing: There is this think called 'Google', you may have heard of it. It usually answers this sort of question in under 10 seconds.

boa constructor

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been using Boa Constructor now on Windows and Linux continously for the last 4 years.

(I even managed to get it running on solaris a few years back)

Re:boa constructor

[Discrete_infinity]

I have used Boa constructor for quite awhile now on both win32 and Linux. I also use it to connect to my CVS server and Zope. Good Stuff.

Re:Boa Constructor

[Joe Tie.]

I haven't used it in about a year, so this might have changed. But boa struck me as fantastic to use 90% of the time. But the remaining 10% would be some of the most horrible lockups I've ever seen on linux, along with some linux specific bugs in a lot of different areas. I eventually just had to give up on using it. Things might have changed since then though, with all the wx updates that have come down the line.

jEdit

[Anonymous Coward]

jEdit

It's a very nice full featured editor with a ton of plugins, including some Python specific ones.
Unfortunately I'm not sure if it will be able to dig into a library for autocomplete, but by default it has autocomplete for words in your current buffer.

Eric

[wlad]

I like this one: http://www.die-offenbachs.de/eric/index.html It's based on Qt4 so it should work on windows as well, though I haven't tried.

Boa Constructor

[pm_rat_poison]

How about Boa Constructor? I've worked it on Linux, but the screenshots on the project's site on sourceforge are from windows, so I'm guessing it's cross platform.
Pasted from the Ubuntu add/remove description
RAD tool for Python and WxWindows application Boa-constructor is an IDE oriented towards creating cross-platform applications built on top of the Python language and the WxWindows GUI toolkit. It features: * visual wxWindows frame design, * object inspector and explorer, * syntax highlighting editor with code completion, call tips and code browsing for Python code, * syntax highlighting editor for C, C++, HTML, XML, config files (INI style), * documentation generation, * an integrated Python debugger, * integrated help, * a Python Shell, * an explorer able to browse, open/edit, inspect and interact with various data sources including files, CVS, Zope, FTP, DAV and SSH, * an UML view generator. Homepage: http://boa-constructor.sourceforge.net/ This application is provided by the Ubuntu community.

Stani's Python Editor / SPE?

[Fencepost]

I've not used it cross-platform (the creator does) but you might want to take a look at Stani's Python Editor. Releases aren't that frequent, but the repository is updated more often and generally seems stable.

There's an out of date project on Sourceforge; development moved to SPE Project Page here.

Trouble with eclipse on ubuntu

[tangent3]

I've had problems using Eclipse on Ubuntu before, the problems you had with Eclipse may be related.

1. Don't use the repositories for Eclipse. Download the linux version directly from the eclipse website, and run it.
2. Eclipse has problems with the default gcj jvm for Ubuntu. Solution here

I suggest giving Eclipse another look. Download the latest ganymede, fix the jvm, add http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/ to your update sites.

Re:Trouble with eclipse on ubuntu

[afd8856]

+1

Never had problems, works beautiful.

Re:Trouble with eclipse on ubuntu

[Chris Pimlott]

I use Eclipse for java dev, not python, but I agree that it's generally better to install a local copy of the upstream eclipse rather using the packaged version.

Re:Trouble with eclipse on ubuntu

[L7_]

I had the opposite experience, mainly with the transition of the Web Browser to Firefox 3/XulRunner 1.9.

Recently, on a RHEL box without access to the Red Hat update site (which was its own issue), but access to the RHEL rpms, using the version of 3.1 that was packaged by Red Hat, everything that was included worked very well (albeit it was releases behind). The upstream Eclipse 3.4 had issues with the Internal Web Browser (due to the fact that my rpm dependencies weren't fixed, and that xulrunner 1.7/1.8/1.9), in that it could not use any internal browsing modules. It never did get fixed, we stopped doing development on that machine (which probably wasnt a good idea in the first place, but whatever).

Re:Trouble with eclipse on ubuntu

[Strider_Hiryu]

I'd have to agree. I setup pydev for Ganymede a few weeks ago, and it works quite well. I was only expecting an interpreter and highlighted syntax, but it has a pretty decent intellisense setup(I'm not sure if all code plug ins for Eclipse have that, but I certainly wasn't expecting it) as well. It'd be something I'd truly recommend for experienced, and first time Python Developers.

Re:Trouble with eclipse on ubuntu

[try_anything]

I use Eclipse on Ubuntu installed straight from eclipse.org, and I have the same nagging problem with corrupted workspaces. If the OP googles around, he can find some tips for fixing a corrupted workspace, such as by deleting specific directories out of it. You still lose a lot of state, including all your preferences. Sometimes you lose everything except your projects, which is almost as bad as rebuilding the whole workspace.

I use Eclipse 3.3 (Europa), the RCP download. I haven't heard that 3.4 has any stability improvements over 3.3, but I plan on upgrading anyway because headless builds have supposedly been greatly simplified -- *wonderful* news for those of use who still shamefacedly use the application export wizard because we can't take a week off to figure out the Eclipse build system.

P.S. Despite these complaints, I'm happy using Eclipse for my RCP app and would still pick Eclipse if I had the choice over again.

Hey Borland.

[LWATCDR]

How about giving use TurboPython :)
Sorry but the fact that you like wordstar type editors made me think of my old beloved TurboPascal IDE.

Re:Hey Borland.

[An ominous Cow art]

I myself would love an up-to-date version of Brief. I was even more productive in Brief that I've ever been in my second love, emacs. I know that later versions of Delphi, Turbo C++, etc. used an IDE which was Brief-like.

I know Crisp is still around, and it was based on Brief, but the price was always a bit steep for something which is just an editor.

For Python, I use WingIDE, as some others have recommended. A few years back, when I first gave Python a try and decided that it was the language for me, I looked into the IDEs available and spent the money for it. Well worth it, even though 95% of my Python coding has been unpaid hobby-type stuff. And Wing is cross-platform - I run it on OS X, but have used it on Windows too.

I tried Komodo (Editor and IDE) and Eclipse lately, but they didn't appeal to me.

Re:Hey Borland.

[DeadSeaTrolls]

Regarding Brief, have you looked at Zeus? http://www.zeusedit.com/index.html

Personally I'm a WordStar luddite who uses Semware's TSE http://www.semware.com/

Re:Hey Borland.

[LWATCDR]

I still use Joe for my light editing on Linux.

Re:Hey Borland.

[LWATCDR]

While not updated.
http://www.briefeditor.com/index.htm

Re:Hey Borland.

[An ominous Cow art]

Nifty, thanks for the pointers to the new Brief, Zeus and brief-mode.

Re:Hey Borland.

[Anonymous Coward]

So it will have a wonderful component library that after two versions will become Windows only and will then be abandoned at it's third revision in favor of the MS Python Foundation Classes... BTW, each version will have no bug fix.

If you're still reading, write it in Python!

[fortunatus]

I couldn't resist, even though my karma will take a hit...

Blast a weekend into a text area that highlights, then every day add a routine that integrates with the cross reference generator, and don't you have an editor with code browsing after a couple weeks?

Since you are still reading comments after all of those good lists of projects where others have already done it, don't you want to do it yourself?

Re:If you're still reading, write it in Python!

[Anonymous Coward]

or just use komodo edit.

Re:If you're still reading, write it in Python!

[bjkinney]

You bring up a good point. I am currently trying to teach myself Python with PyQt4 and my goal is to write my own basic editor for the sake of learning.

One of the reasons I decided to try writing an editor is because while I've found some editor's that I can work in I wouldn't say I've been really satisfied with what I've used. There are already some full featured open source editor/IDE's written in Python which I intend to refer to once I have a better understanding of it so that I can try and learn from what other people have done as well.

However this isn't really the best advice for someone that is already working on another project as it will take time away from current development. Of course if a person is already good with Python perhaps they can get a descent app written in a weekend like you suggested.

Eclipse + PyDev

[Anonymous Coward]

Trust me on this one, it's just a layout for Python on Eclipse so if you're already used to Eclipse it's no problem at all.

It's clearly not perfect (auto-completion doesn't get stuff from new classes you write, at least not in the version I'm using at the moment) but it's really useful.

Slickedit

[ncmusic]

Slickedit

Why cross-platform?

[Sloppy]

I use different editors at work (SubEthaEdit) and home (vim) and amazingly, my brain doesn't hurt.

Re:Why cross-platform?

[SanityInAnarchy]

I work in Ruby, and most of us seem to use TextMate on OS X -- in fact, it's cited as a reason for wanting OS X in the first place.

I use Linux and Kate.

Is there a reason OP can't install their OS of choice?

Re:Why cross-platform?

[rbanffy]

Some have related the use of vi to hair loss. I already switched to joe and emacs, just in case.

Bullshit

[BcNexus]

And one more thing: There is this think called 'Google' [justfuckinggoogleit.com], you may have heard of it. It usually answers this sort of question in under 10 seconds.

Google will not give him concise recommendations based on personal experience from people he trusts. Slashdot will.

Re:Bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

Google will not give him concise recommendations based on personal experience from people he trusts. Slashdot will.

He should be more careful about the people he trusts.

Re:Bullshit

[daVinci1980]

If you trust people on slashdot implicitly, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Personally, I agree with the GP. Instead of asking slashdot, this should've been a google question.

My personal editor of choice is 'whatever editor is great on that platform.' I use Smultron on the Mac, Crimson Edit on Windows and VI on linux.

Cross-platform user-software almost universally suffers from the 'jack of all trades, master of none' syndrome. The conventions are different on the different platforms, why try to fit one editor for all of them? (For example, ctrl-c on windows versus command-c on mac).

Re:Bullshit

[Locutus]

but he could have come to the table with a selection of apps he found and ask about those instead of taking the lazy mans way of asking without doing any research of his own.

There's a reason that URL, justfuckinggoogleit.com, exists. People are justfuckinglazy.com. IMO.

LoB

Re:Bullshit

[Conficio]

People you Trust and Slashdot commentators? That is an oxymoron.

Re:Erics Python IDE, Wing IDE, Komodo. In that ord

[g1zmo]

And one more thing: There is this think called 'Google', you may have heard of it. It usually answers this sort of question in under 10 seconds.

No it doesn't, jackass. A Google search returns a wiki with over a hundred different editors listed, a useless "article" from the equally useless about.com that starts out with "What is a text editor?", a marginally useful blog post which reviewed 6 editors with the conclusion that:

PyDev is the clear choice if you have Eclipse experience. If not, well, the situation isn't pretty. Perhaps you'll have better luck with one of the IDEs we didn't review here.

another blog post reviewing VIM's features, and a smattering of Sourceforge sites and project homepages.

None of these search results offer what the OP came here for: thoughts, experiences, insight, and anecdotal information from a massive collection of peers.

Your snide remark just makes you look like an asshead, and completely canceled out what little value was added by your mindless links to project pages (let me guess, you did a Google search!).

Geany

[denominateur]

For working on smaller projects i find geany to be indispensable. It has a comprehensive project mode, document browser and a symbol tree.

http://www.geany.org/

Re:Erics Python IDE, Wing IDE, Komodo. In that ord

[spinkham]

Better then google in this case would be programming.reddit.com.
There you will find that python programmers are whiny babies, and you should go use lisp or haskell like a real man.
Or someone will helpfully comment that "IDE's are hard, lets go shopping!"

But in all seriousness, the MOST of the folks at programming.reddit.com are pretty helpful, and that is a better forum for programming related questions then slashdot at the moment.

Re:Erics Python IDE, Wing IDE, Komodo. In that ord

[slackergod]

I can't recommend Eric enough...
Since it's PyQT based, as of Eric v4 it's seamlessly cross-platform... and integrates really nicely w/ a number of vcs systems... I've tried a number of them, and it's the best IMHO.

Mind you, a coworker of mine swears by SPE, so take that for what you will :)

Just to run down the three I'm familiar with:

Eric4: cross platform; qt4+qscintilla based; great editor; ok class browser; good vcs & project management; good debugger; poor command completion; handles lots of filetypes (c++, js, ruby, python, etc). Command completion & class browser are my main complaints w/ this program.

SPE: cross platform; wxwindows based; great editor; excellent class browser; no vcs or project management; debugger?; good command completion; ONLY DOES PYTHON... uses os.startfile() for most other filetypes.
Not supporting any other filetypes, or project files, are my main complaints w/ this program.

WingIDE: cross platform; gtk based; great editor; great class browser; not quite as familiar w/ the rest of it because it's semi costly, and I'm a cheap bastard. Main complaint here: just the money :) Oh... and it's command completion (while probably the best I've seen) uses introspection to a large degree, so get ready to have your modules imported all the time.

All 3 are under very active development, and written in python directly, so you can hack them to your needs... Eric4 even has a plugin system.

Leo

[Thyrsus]

Take a look at Leo ( http://webpages.charter.net/edreamleo/front.html ) which works wherever the python libraries it uses work (Linux and Windows, at a minimum). It supports multiple languages but does particularly well in python. The workflow concepts it introduces are *very* well worth the effort to learn. If you want to change Leo's behavior, you can add buttons, scripts or "plugins" in ways similar to (better than?) the way you can program emacs in lisp -- of course, the language you'll use is python.

jEdit

[Dystopian Rebel]

jEdit is written in Java. That may be a recommendation or a condemnation, depending on your politics, CPU, and RAM.

Idle?

[CronoCloud]

Sure, it's not a full fledged Eclipse style IDE with buttons and menus for "everything", but it comes with Python.

Re:Idle?

[nani popoki]

Works for me. Small, simple and comes with Python.

Re:Idle?

[mongoose(!no)]

No, not in this case. Slashdot ruined a very good name.

BBEdit

[Alinraz]

It's not x-platform (it runs on OSX), but it's probably the best editor I've ever used (and this includes Eclipse, Emacs, VIM, SNiFF+, MS DOS's Edit, VisualStudio, various Borland editors, Metrowerks, and just about every mainstream editor included in various distributions of Linux).

It supports Python as well as dozens of other languages; I've used C/C++, Perl, shell scripting, PHP and HTML on it; looking at the menu I count 42 different languages or variants. It supports multiple SCM types, including CVS and Subversion.

http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/

Even better: the company is great. They came out with a new version 8 months after I bought the previous version, and sent me a free key to upgrade!

Re:BBEdit

[Dystopian Rebel]

BBEdit is a well-crafted and powerful tool. It's the best code editor for OS X.

I do not think that all the changes to its UI have been for the better, though.

In general, OS X is a good-looking *and* powerful platform for coding. Especially once you install Fink http://www.finkproject.org/.

Re:BBEdit

[BollocksToThis]

SNiFF+, MS DOS's Edit, VisualStudio

That was totally cruel and uncalled for. Not only do you insult the other editors by including it, but you bring back unwanted memories for the older folks. For shame, sir!

Re:BBEdit

[Anonymous Coward]

since BBEdit works on OSX, what editor would you then recommend for heterosexuals?

Eclipse + Pydev

[Anonymous Coward]

Although I agree that Eclipse is huge, bloated, slow, and buggy, I haven't run into problems as serious as the ones you've described. I have to restart it every once in a while, when the text editor (you'd think they could get at least this part right) gets fubared and starts displaying gibberish onscreen, but I've never had the workspace become corrupted, or anything else that isn't solved by a restart.

I've been working with Eclipse and Pydev for a couple of years, and it gets the job done. There are plenty of things that I wish were different, or less buggy, but after considerable searching and experimenting with most of the other products mentioned here, Eclipse still works better.

M-x brief-mode

[dhTardis]

I myself would love an up-to-date version of Brief. I was even more productive in Brief that I've ever been in my second love, emacs.

I have no idea how good it is, having never used it or Brief, but there is a brief-mode in Emacs for "CRiSP/Brief". It does say in the comments that it's meant as a transition away from it, but maybe it works in reverse too.

Butterflies

[halcyon1234]

Why use an IDE when butterflies will do it for you?

Another vote for Eric

[rwa2]

I did my master's thesis in eric3 and enjoyed it very much. I originally started my project using emacs, but migrated over when I needed integrated debugging tools.

eric added the visual debugging you were asking for. You can set breakpoints all over the place, step through the source, and navigate through the variable hierarchy. Good stuff.

I think the only thing that annoyed me somewhat about eric was I couldn't set a light on dark theme, so my late night coding sessions wouldn't annoy the mrs. But that's just cosmetic.

Bonus points if your name happens to be Eric, I suppose.

Re:Another vote for Eric

[Anonymous Coward]

Bonus points if your name happens to be Eric, I suppose.

I suppose if your name is Joe, you have to use joe. And there's a editor for people named Jed, Ted, Kate, Elvis, and Sam.
 
...Oh God, what about all those poor people named Ed?!

Re:Another vote for Eric

[RogerWilco]

I completely agree. Eric3 is a great Python IDE. It uses Scintilla for the editor, so it depends a bit on if you like that, but otherwise it is a very good and powerful IDE, with all the functions I can think of one could need. I could give a list, but it's free, so try it and see if you like it.

I had a long search to find a good Python IDE, and tried most of the other suggestions in this topic. I think Eric3 is just the best when it comes to Python, because it is made in Python for Python.
Especially if you make your GUIs in PyQt it is a very powerful tool, integrating directly with the Qt tooling.

What I really liked about Eric3, is that it is itself a Python project in Eric3. It shows by it's very nature, that with Eric3, it is possible to develop large and complex software in Python and have it work really well. Yuo just need the right IDE.

And my name is not Eric. ;-)

Check out Geany

[pseudomind]

Personally, I enjoy using geany. http://www.geany.org/

Eric For Python Editing

[fifth555]

I've tried most of the editors out there (although I admit I'm not a fan of Emacs/Vi(m) styles). I have settled with eric for my Python editing; http://www.die-offenbachs.de/eric/index.html

Idle?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a python guy, so I don't know if anyone takes it seriously, but there's an IDE that's supposedly packaged with Python called Idle.

Given that it hasn't been mentioned yet, I'd say there's a decent chance that idle is pants.

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[account_deleted]

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KDevelop

[Anonymous Coward]

It should run on windows now, right?

Jython + Java + Netbeans

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm currently working on a project embedding Python into a Java app via Jython. Using Netbeans with the nbpython plugin has worked pretty well. The only problem is the occasional exception thrown from NB, and having to use the absolute latest NB build for compatibility. With the recent spurt of development centered around Jython, Django, and the nbpython plugin, I wouldn't be surprised if even the minor bugs had been cleared up.

I will also say that Jython plus the Netbeans Swing form editor is the best thing to happen to Java ever. It makes dynamic GUI's a hell of a lot easier. Java scripting just rocks.

Try TextMate

[FictionPimp]

I love TextMate. It's the greatest thing I've ever used for programing.

Re:Erics Python IDE, Wing IDE, Komodo. In that ord

[g1zmo]

None of these search results offer what the OP came here for: thoughts, experiences, insight, and anecdotal information from a massive collection of peers.

How deep into your search results do I have to go to find these things?

Eclipse + PyDev

[rthomanek]

Eclipse with PyDev work fine for me.

Punching cards!

[Anonymous Coward]

So you can code everywhere, anytime!

Wing and PyDev on Eclipse work fine

[rumpsummoner]

It's really odd that this just came up because I just revisited this very question. I have been using Eclipse with PyDev on Windows for about a year and generally like it. Eclipse can be a bit of a bear depending on your hardware and PyDev's auto-completion can be spot on sometimes and utterly useless others; however, generally it runs pretty well. I haven't had any stability issues at all with it. That being said, the more I use python, the fewer features I need in an IDE for some reason. One feature I really do like having though is reliable code-completion when I am writing code for wxpython. Wing is perfect in that regard. I have just recently switched from PyDev on Eclipse to Wing and am very happy with it because of code-completion and debugging. Wing's debugger and auto-completion features kick the crap out of everything. If you're doing open source work and want the professional version it is completely free. If you want the pro version for non-free software development it costs about $150. It's worth every penny if you want very accurate code completion. It also has emacs key bindings if you want them. I rarely have to use a mouse because they are so good. The debugger is pretty good too. I just started doing unit-testing so I am not experienced enough to have an opinion on it, but wing supports that too. My only complaint about Wing is the lack of a regex editor; however, I don't do a lot of regex so when I need one I just use regex buddy. Ultimately it comes down to what feature you need. Try them all out and pick the one that doesn't get in your way. If things work for you like they have for me, you may find that the editor generally doesn't matter other than for the handful of features you actually use regularly.

nostalgia..

[spir0]

I have no answers. I use xterms with vim these days.

but my favourite editors ever were CygnusEd on Amiga, and StrongEd on Acorn RiscOS.

vim works for me, because although it doesn't have the fancy features of an IDE, it does allow me to work on any machine anywhere.

But I do particularly miss StrongEd. That had some great features I've not seen anywhere else. Wonderful for editing lists as it had a feature that allowed you to select a block of text, then move the cursor into the middle of a line. Whatever you inserted or deleted was replicated on every line selected.

Re:nostalgia..

[pavon]

But I do particularly miss StrongEd. That had some great features I've not seen anywhere else. Wonderful for editing lists as it had a feature that allowed you to select a block of text, then move the cursor into the middle of a line. Whatever you inserted or deleted was replicated on every line selected.

Ultraedit (windows shareware) has that ability. I've used it a ton when editing large tab-delimited data definition files at work. Emacs also has some commands to do vertical editing, but I don't use them often enough to remember them (apart from M-x edit-picture).

Re:nostalgia..

[Anonymous Coward]

jedit.select with ctrl and mouse multiple lines start typing and see it typed on multiple lines.

Re:nostalgia..

[int19h]

Vim has that. :) Block select: Ctrl + v

Re:nostalgia..

[Anonymous Coward]

UltraEdit will do this too, and it is convenient. Unfortunately it's Windows-only and costs money --- so it's not a candidate for Python IDE of the Month. Personally, I do most of the initial coding/hacking in emacs followed by debugging in WingIDE. WingIDE could be a little prettier, but it has all the features I expect from an IDE; and it was worth the price (only $30, pretty good compared to many commercial IDEs). Emacs is emacs.

Re:nostalgia..

[spir0]

maybe I'm missing something, but vim has no way of allowing you to move the cursor once you've selected your block. It's good for mass deletions, but not for actually editing or making several edits within a selected block. maybe the gui version acts differently.

Re:nostalgia..

[Anonymous Coward]

copied from a post on ubuntu forums about this topic (i googled "vim column edit"):
~~
Hit Ctrl-V and use motion commands to select a column of text, then use one of these commands:

        I to enter insert mode and insert whatever you type next at the beginning of each row in the column (or A to insert at the end of the column you selected)

        s to replace each line in the entire with the text you type

        d or x to just delete the column :help Ctrl-V for more information.
~~

hope posting anonymously to help doesn't undo the upmods i've been making so far :/ stupid slashcode

WingIDE

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, WingIDE is the best Python editor around. It works a little differently to other editors, but once you're used to it, it's amazingly powerful. It has the best code-completion of any Python editor (and believe me, I checked them all), the debugger works well and the search function is super-fast and therefore very handy for refactoring. Support is excellent via a mailing list, and there is a cheap version available (about $30). Try it out and work through the tutorials, it really is the best one out there.

Re:Erics Python IDE, Wing IDE, Komodo. In that ord

[Anonymous Coward]

There you will find that python programmers are whiny babies, and you should go use lisp or haskell like a real mathemasocist.

FTFY.

Syn/Smultron or Idle.

[mongoose(!no)]

Syn (Windows) and Smultron (Mac) are nice open source general text editors that are pretty similar to each other. I don't use them much for Python, since they don't support code completion. They support tabs and "projects" of related files, which is nice, so I use them a lot of website related stuff. I've always used PythonWin and Idle since they support code completion, which is good when you just can't remember the name of that function you need, and they both do a pretty good job of knowing what to expect and finding syntax and variable type errors in Python before you run the code. They also both support a interactive mode shell for Python, which is great for testing out code before you really get to work on it. I just recently installed Eric, which is a Qt based Python IDE, but it's just too big and cluttered for me.

Zen and the Art of Eclipse

[cowtamer]

Here's what I have discovered through blood, sweat, and tears:

* Use Eclipse 3.3.2 (instead of 3.4.x -- I found 3.4 to be VERY unstable with PyDEV -- and the debug shell doesn't work)
* Use PyDev 1.3.20 (or later)
* GET Pydev Extensions -- it's well worth the $42 (gives you an interactive debug shell and PyLint integration)
* Virtual Word Wrap (it should be built in, but is not).

I've found that its best to NOT let Eclipse copy files to its "workspace" directory -- force it to use the existing files. I have adopted the habit of taking regular tarball backups of the workspace directory (and files I'm editing). Be sure you set your PYTHONPATH properly in your debug configuration, turn on line numbering and display of whitespace characters.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any IDE that is as mature and complete. If you must use something else, I recommend Geany. WingIDE is also good, but lacks support for Projects, sophisticated debug configurations, etc.

Re:Zen and the Art of Eclipse

[Anonymous Coward]

"WingIDE is also good, but lacks support for Projects"
It does? when last did you check WingIDE out?

PyDev for Eclipse

[Adam Jorgensen]

Although I can't stand Eclipse as a platform thanks to its overall bloat and instability, I've found that a minimal Eclipse installation with PyDev does pretty much the best possible job when it comes to Python development. Compared to KomodoIDE, which I also tried, PyDev has far superior code intelligence. I am not an experienced Python developer however, so my opinion is probably a bit less valuable.

ShowMeDo has Python IDE videos

[ianOz]

ShowMeDo has IDE videos showing PyDev, SPE, Wing IDE, GEdit and IPython in action. They'll help you figure out which one to try, without having to invest the time trying each one. Disclaimer - I'm a founder of ShowMeDo, it's all about peer-produced tutorial videos for open-src with a big focus on Python.

Eclipse works very well

[tnt]

I think you should give Eclipse another go. I agree with poster above that suggest you download Eclipse directly from the Eclipse Website instead of using distro rep

Eclipse with PyDev has been my choice of Python/HTML IDE for past 3 years or so, on both Linux and Windows.

Komodo and WinPDB among others..

[u02sgb]

Hi,
    I use Komodo Edit (like a lot of others here). The toolbox feature is kinda handy too, you can put commonly used commands in the toolbox and just double click them to run on the current script. Currently I've got a python script that automatically ftp's the file I'm working on to a specified directory and one that launches the current script into WinPDB which is quite simply the best debugger I've ever used. http://winpdb.org/

Cheers,
    Stuart.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Eric

[nurb432]

I think eric3/4 with the appropriate plugins will do what you are asking.

Geany

[Walter Carver]

A great lightweight IDE. I use it for pretty much anything, even for a regular text editor.

http://www.geany.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/geany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geany

Wing: far and away the best Python IDE

[Anonymous Coward]

From

http://wingware.com

It's commercial. Well worth it.

I might choose Komodo for building web apps that have components written in several languages, including python. For pure python applications, Wing is the best.

Projects, debugging, scm support, code completion, embedded python shell, separate search within a file and across files...

It's much less clunky than PyDev. It's faster and more python-centric than Komodo. And it's much more polished than Eric4.

The company is dedicated to python and provides passionate support with rapid response.

Finally, it's written in python, so it's both fully cross platform and extensible. I've started writing extensions for doing some money management activities from inside the IDE. Very cool.