A Python IDE idea - looking for input

[Brad Bollenbach]

"Jeffrey Drake" <jpt.d at rogers.com> wrote in message
news:3c34d15e.40722565 at nntp...
> This is no guarantee such a product would be started, just looking for
> input on a potential future product.
>
> The model of the ide would come directly from Visual Basic. This

[snip the words of another ambitious open source hacker wanting to reproduce
VB's IDE for Python]

There are really only two things in VB's IDE that are worth trying to
reproduce: the form designer, and the debugger. Everything else that VB does
can be handled by common sense (like "project managers"), and a decent text
editor (for a good laugh, compare vim to VB's editor).

Further, a form designer is only useful for those whose problems involve
GUI's, and a debugger is only really useful to those who don't find the one
included with Python to be useful and who don't think the simplicity of the
language itself greatly reduces the need for a debugger to begin with.

My suggestion is this: decide which of the above purposes you find to be a
most pressing issue. If it's the requirement for a faster way to design a
GUI in Python, then look at something like Glade:

    http://glade.gnome.org/

or wxDesigner:

    http://www.roebling.de/

or Black Adder:

    http://www.thekompany.com/products/blackadder/

or Boa Constructor:

    http://boa-constructor.sourceforge.net/

because they already solve the problem, and if they don't, you'd likely do
better to give your effort to making them better rather than starting all
the way from scratch. Software evolves, and these programs are growing up,
and could use another parent or two to steer them in the right direction.
Writing a form designer that doesn't suck is a monumentous task (which
you'll learn shortly after the inspiration that caused you to write this
thread wears off :), so you're likely better off to work on what's there,
than spending the next 3 years trying to get to where some of the above
programs are right now (and some have been around as long or longer than
that).

If the debugger is something you use often, and you think that Python's
builtin debugger is bad, then first read the documentation to make sure
you're using it correctly, and if it's not working right ask yourself what
you don't like about it, and how hard it would be to make it work the way
you think it should.


Have fun,

Brad