Vim capable IDE?

[Chris Lasher]

Thanks again for your responses, guys. To answer the question,the
features I'd love to see in a Python IDE are:

* First and foremost, Vim editing behavior. Let me keep my fingers on
the homerow. I'm lazy. Point and click and CTRL + SHIFT has its
moments, but text editing is not one of them.

* Graphical symbolic debugger: the course I'm auditing, Software
Carpentry, by Greg Wilson of University of Toronto, devoted a whole
lecture to debuggers. See
http://www.third-bit.com/swc/www/debugging.html . So now I want to try
this crazy thing. I love the idea of being able to watch the values of
variables change in "realtime" as the program runs, from the
convenience of a little side window. I also love the concept of not
having to insert debugging code into the production code--just a click
in the left column and you set the debugging command. Keep the
production code clean by putting the debugging commands outside the
program.

* Source browser: the ability to jump back and forth between specific
blocks of code very quickly, and to see the overall layout of the file
in terms of classes, methods, functions, etc. I want the big picture in
a side window to keep me on task and remind me of how far I've come
when I start feeling bogged down in details.

* Autocompletion: PythonWin by ActiveState has nice autocompletion.
When I import a module, it can dive down into those namespaces and
allow autocompletion on them. That's a nice, productive feature.

* Usage tips/tooltips: Also something I found in PythonWin. During the
writing of the method, a little tip box pops up advising me what the
inputs are for a method or an instance construction for a class. Very
nice, very productive.

* Linux compatibility: Nothing against Microsoft, or Apple, I just like
to use a Linux box more.

It seems like the IDEs I've looked at have most of the features, but
none do Vim. Crazy.

I agree that you can do all your coding using just Vim. That's how I've
been doing it. But following along with Greg Wilson's Software
Carpentry has made me realize that I could be more productive using the
additional, apparently now-standard tools of a good IDE. I just don't
want to sacrifice productivity in in keystrokes. It just seems like a
compromise programmers shouldn't have to make.

the other Chris

Chris Lambacher wrote:
> I would second that.  I use Vim for editing.  I find I don't need an IDE (not
> even for C/C++).  Vim does everything I need.  If I want a debugger I will use
> the shell debugger.  Most other things can be added to Vim, though I tend to
> run with very few plugins.
>
> -Chris
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 05:12:30PM +0000, Ron Adam wrote:
> > What features are you looking for.  I think most Vim users just add what
> > they want to Vim.
> >