I'm not an experienced python programmer, but I come from a C++ background as well. I like to code in Komodo ($29 for the personal edition) and that lets me have multiple python files opened in tabs, and multiple interpreters opened below, since the interpreter is command based, it doesn't have to be very tall, and I find this works great (the debugging windows also appear down at the bottom, which is convienient. The debugger alone is worth the $29, within a week or two of serious development and you've paid for the software in terms of saved time.) Komodo runs on windows and linux.
This leaves my second screen free, where I keep all my web browsers, with comp.lang.python, gmail, and all the documentation I need. I also keep a macros.py file in a place where it's in the python path, and keep it open in Komodo. Anything I find myself typing over and over in the interpreters, I simply make into a function in the macros file and then reload the macros module and call it. I work with mod_python a lot, so I have a macro that reads in the last 10 lines or so of the apache error log, removes extraneous information and prints them, huge timesaver. -Sandra -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
