I might be a little late to the party but my comments may still be valuable.
I write Python code in emacs. Emacs has an great python-mode. The code I write can range from a GUI apps to server side code and emacs works just as well in all cases. Some of the features that make emacs a good Python editor is a built in code browser, embedded interactive shell, evaluation of python code in either a region, class, function or the whole buffer. I can force a reimport of the code in a buffer to the interactive interpreter. Add onto those features all the nifty emacs text editing features plus the ability to build tools on top of emacs and you have a really good development system. I've used a number of commercial and open source tools including Slickedit, and pretty much all the Python specific tools out there and have come back to emacs because it does what I need without getting in my way. The way I work in this environment is that I will open my project files then start an interpreter within emacs. So the way it looks when I start is that I have a split window with my Python buffers on top with a tab for each one. In emacs you can enable grouping for the tabs so that when I am editing a certain kind of file only those tabs are immediately visible. The bottom window has my interpreter. When I think I am finished with a block of code (function, class etc) I will evaluate it and make sure that it doesn't have any syntax errors. I can then go down to the interactive interpreter that is in the bottom window and test the function or class etc. I then go back up to the editor and write more code, rinse repeat. This works extremely well for me. I've written some large Python apps this way. bblais wrote: > Hello, > > Let me start by saying that I am coming from a background using Matlab > (or Octave), and C++. I am going to outline the basic nuts-and-bolts > of how I work in these languages, and ask for some help to find out how > the same thing is done in Python. I am not sure what the standard is. > > In C++, I open up an editor in one window, a Unix shell in another. I > write the code in the editor, then switch to the shell window for > compile and run. I then go back to the editor for modifications, and > then compile and run in the shell window. > > In Matlab, I do much the same thing, except there is no compile phase. > I have the editor on one window, the Matlab interactive shell in the > other. I often make a bunch of small scripts for exploration of a > problem, before writing any larger apps. I go back and forth editing > the current file, and then running it directly (Matlab looks at the > time stamp, and automagically reloads the script when I modify it). > > In Python, there seems to be a couple ways of doing things. I could > write it in one window, and from a Unix shell call > python myscript.py > and be like C++, but then I lose the interactiveness which makes > prototyping easier. If I use the python shell, I can use import (and > reload), or execfile perhaps. > > How do experienced python programmers usually do it? Is there a > "usually" about it, or is it up to personal taste? Are there any > convenient ways of doing these things? > > I realize this is a pretty newbie question, but it could possibly save > me hours of time if there is a better way to work. > > > thanks, > > Brian Blais -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
