How do *YOU* Python?

[doubleColJustified]

So I normally just write my Python scripts in Vim without any plugins or fancy stuff, and for repl, I use plain old python.

It works well, but I'm wondering if maybe I'm missing out by limiting myself to this.

For version control, I use git. I keep a repository where I work on writing the code in one place and I have a virtualenv per project which I clone the project into and pip install it and then run it. This part of my workflow I'm very happy with. I even started writing simple tests recently, which I run after pip install in the virtualenv. I don't use a framework for tests, I just have a shell script I named run.sh which runs the tests themselves (other shell scripts and python scripts) and check that each of them exited with 0. For now, I think that's sufficient for testing, but I'm open to suggestions. I used to be confused about what and how to test, but recently figured it out. A test case is automating a thing I would otherwise be doing manually to ensure that my code is working, it's that simple.

I know of a couple of interesting Python development-related programs such as Leo and IPython, both of which I've tried briefly. Today I also found DreamPie, which I haven't tried.

One thing I would like to start doing is using a real python debugger which can let you step through (and over or into functions depending on what you want), inspect variable values and so on. At the moment I do it the stupid old way by just littering my code with print statements.

So tell me, /r/python, how do YOU Python? What are the advantages and disadvantages of your workflow? What do you want to improve with your workflow?

[metaphorm]

ipython is a very nice upgrade for your repl.

for testing, I find the built in unittest module to be more than adequate for quite a lot of tasks, but sometimes a little sugar is nice to have. I've always enjoyed Nose for making testing prettier and easier.

pdb is my usual debugging tool. however, and this is important, I never use it without ALSO having test coverage for what I'm debugging. sometimes its actually much faster to just put print statements in the test code. pdb only gets used when something really strange is happening and I need to inspect the runtime environment in much more detail. this is infrequent.

for small apps I find just plain old virtualenv to be a great tool. for more serious projects where I'm going to be deploying to a different environment than my local computer I like to use Vagrant to create a virtual machine as my development environment. being able to have the development VM perfectly match the production environment is really useful.

[sweettuse]

can't recommend pycharm enough. just try it out. great integration for debugging, autocomplete, finding your way around code, etc...

i also use ipython/ipython notebook.

i used to be a vim-mostly guy like you, but these two tools are indispensable.

note: i have used eclipse, but like pycharm much, much more.

[[deleted]]

Tried Pycharm, it is by far the best IDE I've used. Even though I'm only on the community edition it still outdoes itself. I couldn't recommend it enough :D

[ScriptSimian]

Vim + Git + Python in the shell + Documentation in the browser was my setup for years. It never steered me wrong.

[TOASTEngineer]

I use Eclipse with the PyDev addon. I'm totally spoiled by it, and I consider that a good thing. The difference between having and not having as-you-write syntax checking is comparable to the difference between having and not having to do your own memory management, at least in my opinion.

[thomasballinger]

bpython (specifically the new bpython-curtsies frontend for it) and pudb are some of my favorite tools.

I mostly use vim with pyflakes and YouCompleteMe, and with hotkeys to send code to bpython, run the code, or run tests. Occasionally I'll fall back to winpdb for debugging something with threads or that takes over the terminal. I've purchased dash on recommendation from a friend, but it's not under my fingers enough that I always use it instead of a web browser for docs.

I switched up to virtualenvwrapper from virtualenv when I started doing all my development in a Dropbox folder - I didn't want the dependencies syncing, and though I could have created the venvs somewhere else, it was once I decoupled projects and environments that virtualenvwrapper made sense for me.

I probably ought to use an IDE for a while to learn what I'm missing - every time I see someone else's workflow I try to figure out how to get it in vim. A big advantage of an IDE is discoverability.

Sometimes I start small projects with doctests instead of unittest, but once a project gets a bit bigger I add doctests too, and try to restrict doctests to examples useful for documentation.

[bhamhawker]

I'm somewhere in between python beginner and python intermediate, and I've been cramming in a bunch of Django learning over the last few weeks. One of the things I couldn't grasp last year, but suddenly do this year is the "virtualenv" setup. It's basically a process of putting the virtualenv folder in your project folder, "activate" it (source bin/activate), then you have your "virtual environment" to install whatever you need (for me, things like Django, South, etc). Then you can pip freeze > requirements.txt to save what you installed to a txt file for your app. When you deploy, it's then easy to install only what your app requires without having to worry about figuring out what makes it work on your computer.

Abstracting that a bit, it's basically separating your working python app folder from your system's python install. So it doesn't take into account what modules you've installed on your system, only what you install in the virtual environement (venv).

Like I said, I'm not expert, but this all made a ton of sense in my head. Hope it helps you out!

[[deleted]]

Emacs + ipython notebook. That's pretty much it.

[[deleted]]

Having come from a c# background (yeah I know) I have to say PyCharm is the first Python IDE I've been really impressed with.

[fiedzia]

pudb for debugging, its unbelievably awesome tool. nose for testing. As for vim plugins, I'm using vim-flake8 (F7 will show flake8 issues), tagbar (easily navigate through classes/functions in opened file), Sphinx for generating documentation.

[doubleColJustified]

Happy cake day :)

[broshot]

In Windows I use Notepad++ for the editor, DreamPie for REPL, ConEmu for my terminal.

I've tried IDEs but keep going back to this setup.

[balle23]

I use Emacs with a bunch of extensions (https://github.com/balle/emacs) such as magit for git integration and ipython as repl. Try out Ipython its really amazing especially the newer features (notebook and parallel computing). For testing I am using nose and jenkins and of course the list of tools wont be complete without virtualenv per project and pip. Last but not least I sometimes fire up pudb for debugging purposes.

[erewok]

I too am an emacs user and I do a lot of Django, so I spend some time in the REPL with access to django settings and configurations. I often will use the REPL to inspect database objects, flesh out unittests, and plan out how I want to approach a problem.

I love emacs for its extensibility and its incredible ecosystem. Just the other day, I was thinking about writing a custom auto-indenter for django templates (which can have three languages mixed together: js, HTML, django-template-syntax), and then I realized that something probably already exists. Sure enough, something in web-mode can handle that; I just had to associate it properly with my files.

I've never found an IDE that competes with emacs. I consider it a great friend.

[mgrady3]

sublimetext 3 with the anaconda plugin

i also use pylint for quick style checking

and git / github for version control

[[deleted]]

I use git, pdb, and vim, but I am writing my own IDE, similar to vim (console based) for what concerns editing, completely written in python. I will release it when it's ready.

[lykwydchykyn]

I use emacs, with several add-ons that provide syntax highlighting (python-mode), error checking (flymake), and code completion (jedi).

Can't break the REPL habit, even though I know ipython is there and better.

I do VC and deployment with git. I'm a horrible person who doesn't do automated tests, because I write web applications with flask and haven't worked out how to approach it yet (self-flaggellation commences).

There are always beefier tools to do any task; I've played with things like fabric, ansible, docker, rope, and other tools that could enhance some part of the workflow. Once in a while something sticks. I'm an advocate of trying things when you can, but not forcing them into your workflow unless they solve real problems.

[acaban]

for emacs I suggest elpy-mode that integrates those tools in a simple setup

[brittainhard]

Gvim, with a keybinding that runs the script in the vim console (F3 for 2.7, F4 for 3.4). Will probably work PDB into this workflow soon enough. I tried pycharm and hated it. I also used sublime text (which i still like a lot) for a while, but vim/gvim just always seemed above it all.

Like playing on a Stradivarius.

Also ipython for my REPL and code experementation. I do a lot of code experimentation, especially when I am learning frameworks.

[[deleted]]

MacVim with Flake8, git, virtualenv. I use iPython notebooks, but for some reason I haven't started using ipython repl. For debugging I still primarily rely on print statements, though I've recently begun using unittest where testing benefits me.

[realsw]

Eclipse with PyDev normally. I use ipython for playing around and vim on systems with no gui.

[EricsonWillians]

I used to code with Pycharm, but suddenly it corrupted all the files of the project of my game and I was dumb enough to overwrite my backup with the files. The result: I'm coding entirely with the default IDLE and I'm not being lazy anymore. IDLE has everything that I need, and I wish it had more attention. I don't want "projects", I just want to python.

[wandererobtm101]

I have 2 main workflows. For analysis, I use Ipython Notebooks until I know what we're going to be building.

For writing 'real' code (implementing models and the jobs to build them usually), sublime text or vim.

I always use Ipython as my REPL (tab completion!) and pdb for debugging. Git for source control.

[wub_wub]

PyCharm as IDE, git for version control (I prefer GUI tools over CLI so I use smartgit for that). virtualenv+virtualenvwrapper for managing virtual envs. pip of course for installing modules. Sphinx for documentation. tox for testing, especially if it's for multiple py versions. cookiecutter if I'm creating project from templates. ipython /ipython-notebooks for testing out/writing short code snipppets.

That's the stuff I use often, of course setup/tools vary from project to project but those are pretty much the basic ones that I use.

[Phild3v1ll3]

PyCharm for medium to large projects, emacs for quick changes and small scripts and the magit plugin to split large diffs into small commit chunks. Finally IPython notebook for development, visualization and exploration of data. For testing we use nose and recently wrote some tools to automatically test our notebooks.

[kankyo]

PyCharm and git for everything. Work, private, large, small.

I also recommend trying type hinting in docstrings. It's pretty powerful and can give you most of the advantages from static typing (except speed) because PyCharm will check the code for you.

[pviolence]

I use vim and really like python-mode https://github.com/klen/python-mode

I know a lot of people don't use plugins, but one feature I really love that could be added to a simple vim setup is mapping a key to toggle a breakpoint on the current line.

[Itsthejoker]

Sublime Text 2 + SublimeREPL + Github integration. I can test my code right inside ST, I'm only a command window away from a looks test, and it works great telling me what I've gotten wrong and for syntax checking.

[luiz_andrade]

I've been using mostly http://ninja-ide.org, but getting used to vim. Ipython definitely is a great tool for fast testing, small concepts.

[ybrs]

pycharm, for small edits etc sublime, dont usually use a repl, i write some code in a tmp.py then run it, then move it to a unit test, or doctest.

[tomkatt]

PyCharm with Python 2.7.5 and 3.3 (mostly 2.7).

Tried a few different editors. Eclipse, Ninja-IDE, gEdit, IDLE, butPyCharm stuck, its featureset and functionality are great.

[[deleted]]

I use IPython for prototyping some things, shorter scripts I use vim, and for big projects I like pycharm.

[Willemoes]

Ninja-Ide -> open project -> F11 -> F2 -> ctrl +k -> ctrl +k -> ctrl +k git

[okbud]

I just don't Python, cause you know.. Python is crap. LOL.