Results of IDE post

[Jeffrey Drake]

I have collected all of the IDE responses. Here is the basic list:

Python IDE Proposal

Feature list:
Direct support (interfaces) for profiling, distutils, and unit testing
Allow debugging
Provide helpers for extentions in C, and C++ (see cxx.sourceforge.net)

*Free* -> Free does not necessarily mean open source, if it was
opensource it would not be GPL. If it was made in python, it would
definately be source available.




Feature list that people have said they liked:

>From paul at boddie.net (Paul Boddie):
Tightly linked to CVS: This would be good, as an option to say where
the source files are located, or will be 

eventually stored. As another point, integration with sourcesafe as
well if it is possible.

Different ways of viewing source data.
---
Form designer - of course issues with this as one of the posters said
there are a huge number of gui projects.





Why/Why not:
Use python instead of c++
	- I have concerns about being able to control python from
python (and maintain speed). I can't have a
		 python script doing something naughty taking out the
entire IDE.

Use pyQT
	- This is limited to *nix for any practicality as for windows
(qt) is limited to free software with 
		annoying addition to titlebar, and it imitates an
interface rather than native

Using Eclipse
	- Any report I have seen (mainly /.) is that it is slower.
	http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/28/213253&mode=nested
	A post: "It runs on linux, but looks like ass, and is slow. " 
	Same poster: "It runs and looks *great* on win2k, though. "
	And: "Conceptually, it's brilliant, and the greatest thing
since sliced kielbasa. "



Expand:
Advanced things




Things to pay attention to:
"aim at what Python programmers really
need."
	"Steve Holden" <sholden at holdenweb.com>





Why not existing:

All but one of those ides require payment. PythonWin's debugger likes
to freeze a lot when developing code. pygame code I believe I was
debugging. I didn't like any of the other products I tried. 

Komodo is slow, and when running applications they are always put
under debug mode I believe. 

WingIDE (http://archaeopteryx.com/wingide/) I can't say much about.

I tried PythonWorks and I don't care for it. It looks and acts a
little wierd to me. (http://www.pythonware.com/products/works).

PythonCard: I have nothing to say about this, but "Kevin Altis"
<altis at semi-retired.com> makes it sound pretty good

Boa: The first time I loaded this thing up, it crashed.
  File "C:\projects\BOA-00~1.5\ExternalLib\buttons.py", line 156, in
SetBackgrou
ndColour
    wxWindow.SetBackgroundColour(self, colour)
TypeError: unbound method SetBackgroundColour() must be called with
wxWindow ins
tance as first argument (got wxGenBitmapButton instance instead)

	This has soured my opinion about it, but I am interested in
trying it later, just don't have time to look at its source right now.






Issues with plan:
"Brad Bollenbach" <bbollenbach at home.com> points out 
"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)."

I tend to agree with him on everything except for comparing vim to
VB's editor. I don't like vim to begin with.


Regards,
Jeffrey Drake