Earlier, I mentioned a considerable number of IDEs which are available for Python, including:
PyDev, Eric, Komodo, PyCharm, WingIDE, SPE, Ninja-IDE, Geany, IEP, Spyder, Boa Constructor, PyScripter, NetBeans, Emacs, KDevelop, and BlackAdder. https://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments There is also IDLE, which is part of the standard Python installation, as well as my preference: Unix/Linux as an IDE. http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/series/unix-as-ide/ http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/ide-culture-vs-unix-philosophy/ Some people ask: "How many of those quality IDEs ship with Python?" Most don't, of course, since they are third-party tools. Not that it matters: it's 2014, not 1974, and anyone in the developed world interested in computer programming has easy access to the information superhighway sometimes know as "the Internet". (Many people in developing nations also have access to the Internet, and those who don't probably have bigger problems to worry about.) With the Internet, most of these IDEs are normally just a few clicks away. People using Linux will generally find that they can install some of these IDEs using their package manager. For example, Red Hat Linux based systems such on Centos or Fedora can use the yum package manager, e.g.: yum install geany geany-plugins while Debian and Ubuntu based systems (such as Mint) can use apt-get or aptitude, e.g.: aptitude install eric apt-get install spe Of course, most Linux distros include a GUI front-end to their package manager, but frankly if you're programming on Linux and you're unwilling to use the command line, you're making life harder for yourself than it need be. Windows and OS X users, sadly, miss out on the power of an integrated package manager. OS X have a couple of third-party packaging systems, MacPorts and Homebrew: http://www.macports.org/ http://brew.sh/ Unfortunately, software development on Windows is something of a ghetto, compared to the wide range of free tools available for Linux. Outside of a few oases like Microsoft's own commercial development tools, it's hard to do development on Windows. Hard, but not impossible, of course, and there are quite a few resources available for the Windows user willing to download installers from the Internet. For Python users, the IDEs from Wingware and Activestate are notable: https://wingware.com/ http://komodoide.com/ Some people are under the impression that IDEs are mostly or even solely for the benefit of "newbies" or "n00bs". That's a gross misunderstanding of the situation: the average newbie is likely to be happy writing code using Notepad, or whatever bare-bones text editor they're used to, and may not even know what an IDE is. It's those with some experience in programming (particularly in the Java and Visual Basic worlds) who are more likely to expect an IDE. Another patronising view is that those who are new to programming are automatically too incompetent or ignorant to download or install an IDE without hand-holding. Even if that were the case, there is no shortage of hand-holding available on the Internet, with dozens or hundreds of forums, mailing lists, tutorial, videos and blogs offering to help. (It is undeniable that the quality of these is *extremely* variable, but that's another story.) This is the Internet generation, if software has a downloadable installer, or can be installed using a package manager, most people can deal with it, and those who can't have many opportunities to learn. (It's probably a bit much to expect the average newbie to install software from source, especially on Windows which doesn't come with much in the way of compilers and other development tools, but still, it has to be said that if you're hoping to become a programmer, installing software from source is one of the skills you should learn.) So why does Python ship with IDLE? It's not because Python requires an IDE, or that newbies need one, or that there aren't alternatives. The biggest reason for Python shipping with an IDE is not that people are unable to install alternatives, but that a lot of people are *prohibited* from doing so. For those of us who have control over our computing environment, it's all too easy to forget that a lot of people (e.g. students using school computers, or people in corporate environments where the desktops are locked down to a standard operating environment) aren't able to install the IDE of their choice. It's relatively easy to get Python itself approved -- on many systems, Python comes pre-installed -- but trying to get approval to also install third-party software is difficult or impossible. It is for the sake of those people, people who prefer or require an IDE but don't have the choice to install third-party software, that Python ships with a minimal but usable IDE. -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
