Because IDLE is free, portable, and a standard part of Python, it’s a nice first development tool to become familiar with if you want to use an IDE at all. Again, I recommend that you use IDLE for this book’s exercises if you’re just starting out, unless you are already familiar with and prefer a command-line-based development mode. There are, however, a handful of alternative IDEs for Python developers, some of which are substantially more powerful and robust than IDLE. Apart from IDLE, here are some of Python’s most commonly used IDEs:
Eclipse is an advanced open source IDE GUI. Originally developed as a Java IDE, Eclipse also supports Python development when you install the PyDev (or a similar) plug-in. Eclipse is a popular and powerful option for Python development, and it goes well beyond IDLE’s feature set. It includes support for code completion, syntax highlighting, syntax analysis, refactoring, debugging, and more. Its downsides are that it is a large system to install and may require shareware extensions for some features (this may vary over time). Still, when you are ready to graduate from IDLE, the Eclipse/PyDev combination is worth your attention.
A full-featured development environment GUI for Python (and other languages), Komodo includes standard syntax coloring, text editing, debugging, and other features. In addition, Komodo offers many advanced features that IDLE does not, including project files, source-control integration, and regular-expression debugging. At this writing, Komodo is not free, but see the Web for its current status—it is available at http://www.activestate.com from ActiveState, which also offers the ActivePython distribution package mentioned in Appendix A.
NetBeans is a powerful open source development environment GUI with support for many advanced features for Python developers: code completion, automatic indentation and code colorization, editor hints, code folding, refactoring, debugging, code coverage and testing, projects, and more. It may be used to develop both CPython and Jython code. Like Eclipse, NetBeans requires installation steps beyond those of the included IDLE GUI, but it is seen by many as more than worth the effort. Search the Web for the latest information and links.
PythonWin is a free Windows-only IDE for Python that ships as part of ActiveState’s ActivePython distribution (and may also be fetched separately from http://www.python.org resources). It is roughly like IDLE, with a handful of useful Windows-specific extensions added; for example, PythonWin has support for COM objects. Today, IDLE is probably more advanced than PythonWin (for instance, IDLE’s dual-process architecture often prevents it from hanging). However, PythonWin still offers tools for Windows developers that IDLE does not. See http://www.activestate.com for more information.
Other IDEs are popular among Python developers too, including the mostly commercial Wing IDE, Microsoft Visual Studio via a plug-in, and PyCharm, PyScripter, Pyshield, and Spyder—but I do not have space to do justice to them here, and more will undoubtedly appear over time. In fact, almost every programmer-friendly text editor has some sort of support for Python development these days, whether it be preinstalled or fetched separately. Emacs and Vim, for instance, have substantial Python support.
IDE choices are often subjective, so I encourage you to browse to find tools that fit your development style and goals. For more information, see the resources available at http://www.python.org or search the Web for “Python IDE” or similar. A search for “Python editors” today leads you to a wiki page that maintains information about dozens of IDE and text-editor options for Python programming.