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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?
Vi/Vim/GVim!
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?
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.
... and I shall strike upon thee with great vegeance, furious anger and a slightly positive karma.
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.
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.
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!).
I have found there are just two ways to go.
It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow. -REK, Jr.
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.
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!
This sig is part of your complete breakfast.