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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?"
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.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
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.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
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?
I wank in the shower.
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.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
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.
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.
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...
Slickedit
I use different editors at work (SubEthaEdit) and home (vim) and amazingly, my brain doesn't hurt.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.