[Pythonmac-SIG] IDE that doesn't look awful?

[Kevin Walzer]

Joe Strout wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'd heard good things about Wing IDE (including that it was written with 
> wxPython, and I know that wxPython can make decent Mac apps with a bit 
> of care).  So I downloaded the disk image today, and man -- is it ever 
> ugly!  It's really not a Mac app at all, but an X-Window app, with all 
> the usual cruft that brings.  Even XCode is better than that.  I know I 
> shouldn't care, but... somehow, I do.
> 
> Is there any Python IDE that looks and feels more like a proper Mac app?
> 
> Thanks,
> - Joe
> 

Joe,

WingIDE is written using PyGtk, not wxPython. So yeah, it's an ugly X11 app.

There are lots of Python-aware editors out there (i.e. with syntax 
awareness) but nothing as slick as Xcode is for Cocoa development, and 
certainly nothing else with an integrated GUI builder (unless you are 
writing a PyObjC app, in which case Xcode is probably your best bet). 
Komodo is a fairly robust editor and has both free and commercial 
editions; it's built on Mozilla, so doesn't look perfectly native, but 
it is better than WingIDE. A lot of folks on this list swear by Vim or 
Emacs (Aquamacs is a very nice Emacs variant optimized for Mac UI 
conventions).

I actually just use plain old IDLE. It's had some basic Mac UI 
adaptations, and works nicely for me. But then, I use Tk/Tkinter as my 
GUI toolkit, so I actually prefer to use a Tk-based app as a reference 
point (for both good and bad aspects).

--Kevin

-- 
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com