Ranting about the state of Python IDEs for Windows

[Jaime Wyant]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 17:10:16 -0300, Carlos Ribeiro <carribeiro at gmail.com> wrote:
[ snip! ]
> 
> The funny thing is that I don't need anything particularly fancy. A
> good Python editor, syntax coloring, a few helpers (moving blocks &
> stuff). Debugging is good, but it's not what I really miss. Even form
> designers -- I could live without them. What I really miss are stuff
> that I regard as basic: a tabbed editor window for multiple files, and
> a good project manager interface -- a place where I can find all the
> files belonging to my projects without having to move around the
> directory tree whenever I have to do anything. Could I do it using
> only command-line tools? Probably, but it's not comfortable,
> convenient or productive. A good IDE would bring me these three things
> that I'm longing for.

I use (FWIW) Stani's Python Editor (http://spe.pycs.net/).

While it is far from perfect, it is very functional and offers:

o Syntax highlighting
o wxGlade support built in (well, launches wxGlade which comes bundled)
o Module auto-open support
   (Put your cursor "into" an imported module name, hit ctrl-enter and
SPE will load it into the editor.  Probably not the right technical
name)
o Tabbed edit windows.  Each edit window has its own tab, for easy
switching back / forth.
o Todo list.  But a comment like "# TODO: do something" and SPE will
add it to the TODO list.
o PyChecker support built in.
o Selection comment / uncomment.  Select text and uncomment / comment it.
o Auto completion.  It's strange and I don't quite understand it, but
the editor can "guess" at what methods/properties are available for a
class by inspecting the class' code.  Also works really well for
built-ins and libraries.
o Module explorer.  Shows all classes / functions / imports defined in
the module being edited.

What SPE doesn't have:
o Built-in debugging support
o Project based configuration.  That is files are saved independently
of one another, they aren't grouped as projects.

I'm sure i've forgot to mentions some of the things that SPE does /
doesn't have.

HTH,
jw