New to python, do I need an IDE or is vim still good enough?

[Terry Reedy]

On 12/27/2012 3:01 PM, mogul wrote:
> 'Aloha!
>
> I'm new to python, got 10-20 years perl and C experience, all gained
> on unix alike machines hacking happily in vi, and later on in vim.
>
> Now it's python, and currently mainly on my kubuntu desktop.
>
> Do I really need a real IDE, as the windows guys around me say I do,
> or will vim, git, make and other standalone tools make it the next 20
> years too for me?

We try to avoid religious issues on this list.
Programming editors are a religious issue.
Therefore ... ;-)

Kidding aside, I am sure there is at least one core Python developer 
using vim (as well as emacs). I believe there are one or more 
'customization files' (or settings packages? don't know proper term for 
vim) which you should be able to find if you have not already.

Some 'real IDE' users consider IDLE a limited beginner's toy. I use it 
happily for what *I* do. I don't even use all the features if *does* have.

The one thing I would suggest is to make sure that you can run a python 
file with the '-i' flag so that the interpreter drops into interactive 
mode and gives a prompt instead of exiting when done. Then, if you get 
an exception like
AttributeError: 'Foo' object has no 'frobulate attribute
and you know the Foo object is named foo, you can enter (in the 
interpreter) 'dir(foo)' and perhaps see that it *does* has a 'fribulate' 
attribute. (When IDLE runs the code in an editor window, it stops with 
an interactive prompt in the shell window, and one can then enter code 
such as above.)

> Oh, by the way, after 7 days I'm completely in love with this python
> thing. I should have made the switch much earlier!

Welcome to the club.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy