Python IDEs with F5 or hotkey shell interaction

mmm mdboldin at gmail.com
Tue Sep 2 10:01:38 EDT 2008


I am looking for advice on Python Editors and IDEs

I have read other posts and threads on the subject and my two
questions at this time are mainly about the IDLE-like F5-run
facilities.  While I am fairly happy using IDLE, the debugger is
unintuitive to me and I wanted a project manager and a better variable/
class browser and also the potential to edit/run other languages such
as R and Tex/Latex. Windows and LINUX compatibility is desired too.

I found numerous editor candidates from reading posts to this Python
users group list  and also documents such as   http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEditors
but few if any alternatives seem to have all of the  ‘interactive’
power of IDLE—- not only a run program in a python shell hotkey but a
persistent, after-a-run memory state can be accessed for interactive
coding and exploration--  i.e. how IDLE works !

*** My first questions is what other editor/IDE have IDLE-like
interactive features.  Or to put it another way, is my appraisal below
of the editors & IDEs I tried right (note some where looked at as much
as a year ago).

Python specific
 IDLE        F5 run & Full shell interaction
 PythonWin   F5 run & Full shell interaction, MS Windows only
 PyScripter  F9 run & shell interaction,
                     but script created variables are not persistent
(???!)
 PyPE        F5 run, but not an interactive shell
 DrPython    F5 run, but not an interactive shell in MS Windows (maybe
in Linux)
 SPE (Stani) Could not get it to run in MS Windows (???!)

PyScripter, PyPe and drPython all had nice features but interaction
quirks.

My second question is based on a belief that I should move to a more
general IDE or editor to get  LINUX compatibility and the ability to
also edit R and LaTex programs.  I have explored these
   Vim
   Cream/Vim
   UliPad
   SciTe
   Jext
   Editra
   Komodo Editor
But none are close to being as interactive friendly as IDLE.

I might look at
  Eclypse with pydev
  Jedit
And these commercial/professional IDEs
  Wing
  Komodo IDE
  Zeus

But before doing so I wanted to know form experienced users:

** How hard is it to configure any of the general editors/IDEs to run
a Python shell using a hotkey (such as IDLEs F5) and whether any can
be set up for full interactivity.

I understand and appreciate  the difficulties to get full IDLE-like
interactivity, but what comes closest?



More information about the Python-list mailing list