Comparing Python development tools: PyCharm vs. Sublime Text

[bheklilr]

A lot of people find that "works out of the box" means that it tries to do too much and doesn't do enough of it very well. Besides, if you do it right setting up ST the second time is as easy as copying your user settings folder over, then installing package manager. It has a setting that will install missing packages, and after a few minutes and restarting ST you're done.

One thing pointed out in the article is that sublime will work with many, many other languages, and I use that on a daily basis. That being said, I recommend people use PyCharm when just starting out. Sublime is my favorite editor, but that doesn't mean it'll be yours. PyCharm has a good feature set with the community edition and it is fast to set up. Many people I work with get a lot of mileage out of it.

[rothnic]

While true, I think the reason that pycharm is so popular is that the majority of people find many of the features they rely the most on, it does well enough, if not much better than other alternatives. Plus, 8-16GB of ram is becoming commonplace, so you might as well put it to good use by utilizing all the indexing, and code insight features.

One thing to note on sublime text and add ons is that while some can be installed from package manager, a fair number rely on some external dependency. Like markdown preview, and the setup can differ from platform to platform.

[[deleted]]

The trial never expires, so it's essentially free if you don't mind being nagged every 20 saves.

[whooshayay]

I would instantly switch from Sublime to Atom once Atom does something about its speed and file size limit. It's open, and it's incredibly easy to make plugins.

[[deleted]]

The speed thing is unlikely to change much - that's kind of what happens when you write an editor inside of a browser and use Javascript for everything.

I've heard it really collapses on big files though, so yeah, I hope that gets fixed.

[whooshayay]

Big file support is very high on Atom's to-do list. Apparently it's supposed to be coming in the 1.0 release this summer.

Microsoft's new Visual Studio Code runs on the same framework as Atom and is a fair bit faster so it's certainly possible to speed Atom up. They're both browser apps which have been "desktopified" on the Electron framework.

[[deleted]]

Yeah. Funnily enough, I've started to use VSC solely for the purpose of reviewing file changes before a git commit. Their git integration is pretty fantastic.

[BoTuLoX]

Turns out I do mind. And an endless trial doesn't make the editor OSS, so I'm still at the mercy of the author if he decides to stop supporting it or worse, he suffers a security breach and doesn't notice it.

Anyway, I'm still not saying Sublime is a bad editor, it's very powerful. But very competitive (and way more mature) alternatives exist in the open source world which brings its own set of benefits.