On Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:01:16 -0800, 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?
You only *need* an IDE when your environment has feeble stand-alone tools, like Windows. As far as I am concerned, Unix (including Linux) is itself the ultimate in hot-plug IDEs. http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/series/unix-as-ide/ My own preferred IDE is: * The KDE editor Kate[1]; * For preference, KDE's Konsole with multiple tabs, although any decent terminal app will do: - one tab for file system operations (e.g. renaming files) and source code control using hg or git; - one for running the script or stand-alone application I am writing, e.g. "python myscript.py", or if a library, for running unittests or doctests, e.g. "python -m doctest mylibrary.py" - at least one for running an interactive Python shell for testing code, reading documentation ("help(some_object)") etc. - anything else needed e.g. monitoring system load with top, etc. * A browser for searching the web and accessing the Python docs. I've never really got into automatic refactoring tools, but if I needed something more powerful than my editor's Find And Replace, I would investigate Bicycle Repair Man, or Rope. At a pinch, there's always sed, although I'm not a sed expert. (I can just about spell it... *wink*) I'm sure that IDEs have their good points, but in my experience whatever good points they have are overshadowed by the negatives (e.g. a clunky editor that doesn't respond instantly when you type). A Swiss Army Knife might be the best Swiss Army Knife money can buy, but in general it is no substitute for a toolbox filled with independent tools. In sports, it is said that "a champion team will beat a team of champions", but in software the opposite is the case: a set of excellent single-purpose tools is usually more powerful than a single tool that tries to do it all. Having said all that, if somebody has a personal preference for a specific IDE, then good for them, I certainly wouldn't tell them that they shouldn't use it. [1] KDE 3 only. KDE 4 is unspeakable. Gedit from Gnome 2 is almost a good substitute. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
