Python IDE/text-editor

[Ben Finney]

Alec Taylor <alec.taylor6 at gmail.com> writes:

> I've tried all the IDEs/text-editors mentioned.

Great! Experimenting with them is valuable if you have the time.

> Emacs and vim are good, however I often find myself on a workstation
> without direct console access.

I don't understand this; both of those (unlike most of the less powerful
alternatives mentioned in this thread) allow operation via direct
windowed application, by remote windowed application, or by remote
text-mode application. What is is you think Emacs or Vim are lacking in
this regard, and what makes you expect it?

> GVim leaves a lot aesthetically desired. Also there's a learning-curve
> to both of them

They carry a lot of baggage from being decades old. But that speaks more
about the mercurial changes in user interfaces of other programs, and
the high value programmers who've already mastered a flexible tool place
on applying what they've already learned in as many future situations as
can be feasible.

Both Vim and Emacs are actively and passionately developed, their
interfaces are being refined all the time without dramatic overhauls
every few years, and that's a huge advantage of these two and is part of
what makes them the default choice of so many programmers.

> whereas nano, and all the text-editors/IDEs above are user-friendly.

As many others in this thread have said, the learning curve pays off in
access to a powerful general-purpose tool that you can apply to an
enormous range of programming tasks.

A reason Vim and Emacs survive while so many thousands of other options
rise and fall and are forgotten is in part because Vim and Emacs have
gained the maturity and critical mass of community support that ensures
you can do just about anything in them.

Even if you don't end up liking either of them, you should gain working
familiarity with at least one of Vim or Emacs. They are the closest
things the programming world has to a standard coding environment and
are the most likely to be available and acceptable to your peers where
no other familiar option exists.

-- 
 \                “I got fired from my job the other day. They said my |
  `\          personality was weird. … That's okay, I have four more.” |
_o__)                                       —Bug-Eyed Earl, _Red Meat_ |
Ben Finney