Python development tools

[CM]

> >> > 1. Automated Refactoring Tools
> 
> >>  I wish.
> 
> > Why?  I've never seen the appeal of these.  I do plenty of refactoring.  
> > It's unclear to me what assistance an automated tool would provide.
 

> I've often wanted something that would help globally change  
> things like function and method names including across multiple
> files.  Even variable names in large functions (ideally functions
> should be small enough that this is not a problem but sometime
> shit happens).  I am not great at picking good names to begin
> with and often code drift makes them even worse with time.
> Editor search and replace doesn't cut it. 

I have occasionally used Bicycle Repair Man for this kind of thing.  I don't actually know if it works across files, and I never quite convinced myself that it really works faithfully at all, but you could always try it (and even improve it if you can):

http://bicyclerepair.sourceforge.net/#overallidea