As I continue my education in Python, I have had a little trouble deciding on an editor. I use both Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows (Vista) on regularly and wanted an editor that would work in both. early on, I used the editor included my Python distribution for Windows, which was also available in Linux, but I found it to be lacking features. What I really wanted was something closer to an IDE.
Being a C++/C#/Java programmer, I have been quite spoiled by Integrated Development Environments and find that as long as the IDE doesn't get in your way, you can learn a language rather quickly.I also wanted to code Python using software that I can use for other languages as well, in case I need to embed HTML or XML in my scripts. So I first turned to Komodo Edit, the free scripting language, HTML, and XML editor from ActiveState. After configuring the python interpreter options, I found that I could easily create a script and the completion wasn't bad. I did find that Komodo lacked support for directly executing script: I had to tell the editor to run my selected interpreter over the currently open file. Fortunately, I could save this to the toolbox (right-side of image) for later use.
After this, I remembered that Netbeans, the open source Java IDE sponsored by Sun Microsystems, supports Python in its latest version. While it takes a bit longer to load (I downloaded to heaviest version and then loaded it with plugins), I found it to be a better experience for me. Debugging support was much more complete in Netbeans, which helped me tremendously in troubleshooting.
One downside to both is that completion-based on the type of object left much to be desired. Visual Studio is much better in this regard. This may be due to the fact that variables are not typed explicitly in Python code, making such completion difficult at best.
Another candidate is Aptana Studio, an Eclipse-based web languages IDE, which recently added Python support via PyDev. Unfortunately, Aptana Studio's Python completion is not on par with it's Javascript and PHP completion. It was quite bad actually. It is possible that I misconfigured something, but that does not explain the fact that the exact same script that I ran in the other two editors fails to execute properly in this one.
I ran the script file the command line and it worked with no options specified at all:
If anyone knows what I did wrong, I welcome the help, but in the end I think I would still stick the "traditional" IDE and use Netbeans for my Python needs. That is until I tackle Google App Engine. For this, Aptana Studio could be quite useful. Maybe, the Aptana people will release a plugin for it and make it easier for me.
