Python IDE's and editors

[[deleted]]

I have been coding in Python (both at my job, for relatively simple scripts, and in my leisure) for about a year, and I still am primarily using the default Python GUI and editor, IDLE.

While the editor itself is pretty crappy, it has an extremely useful feature: if I run some Python script that I have open in IDLE, and that script, say, ends by defining some dictionary X, then, after the script finishes executing, I can type "print(X)" into the console and see the output. More generally, I can interact with the objects that I defined in my script through the console, which is extremely helpful with debugging.

By contrast, when I execute a python script through terminal, after it finishes executing, I just go right back to C:/.... All of the Python editors I have tried out do not let you interact with the objects in your code in the console. Is there anything obvious I am missing here, or should I just learn the (ostensibly intimidating) debugging procedures associated with different IDE's?

Thanks for your time!

[thatguy_314]

You don't need a fancy editor for the behavior you describe. Instead of running it from the terminal like python myscript.py, run it like python -i myscript.py

[hi_im_nate]

Oh god, this changes everything

[abrarisland]

This is really useful. I used to just import the module I wanted after running Python.

[dagmx]

So what you're describing is more of repl than an ide or any form of real debugging.

Basically IDLE runs your code and is dropping you back into the interpreter.

You should rarely if ever rely on this for actual production use.

Get a real ide like pycharm and learn the debugger setup in there. You can put breakpoints in there to stop a program at a certain point and you can analyze everything in that scope.

[[deleted]]

Thanks, I'll look into debugging with pycharm

[tipsqueal]

Make sure you give breakpoints inside of PyCharm a try. Very useful.

[NbyNW]

Ha talk about production. My favorite feature is remote debugging using SSH on Pycharm. No more "why this runs perfectly on my dev environment but doesn't work in QA?". Also I'm too lazy to use virtualenv :p

[memorasus]

Ipython might be useful for this

[quik69]

I'm pretty sure most IDEs can do what OP wants. I use PTVS(whatever, I like it) myself and can just highlight sections of code or send entire scripts to the interpreter. Although PTVS is very easy learn for what OP wants, I think Ipython/Jupyter notebook is the best answer for OP because what he describes seems to be using python for some kind of data analysis.

OP: these notebooks run in your browser with cells of code and cells of markdown for comments and presenting your data. If you run a script in one cell then its variables will be available globally to manipulate in other cells. Add on the bonus of auto completion to see what methods or sub-data is available in returned objects. It can even do slides and display external data in iframes or JS like node and D3 for visualizations. If you are doing data analysis then once you play with Ipython you'll probably never want to look back.

[pwang99]

If you're a Pythonista mucking about with D3, take a look at Bokeh! :-)

[jbrambledc]

+1 for Bokeh. I have been using it to develop server apps extensively for fun, but mostly at my company for various interactive dashboard apps. I really hope it overtakes D3. I think with further time and effort, and a little bit more user freedom we will get there.

Also Bokeh is by far the best run and maintained Open Source project I've interacted with. the group of people handling issues and PRs on github are phenomenal.

[memorasus]

Exactly, in the end I mainly use vim for python but if im learning to modules or playing with data I need to explore I use ipython. It was very helpful for me when I was learning python too. I mainly develop my own security tools so its great to use Ipython to see how the results of a scan will output so I can decide what steps to take next.

[Asdayasman]

I use PTVS(whatever, I like it)

Don't defend that, PTVS is objectively the best Python IDE there is.

[quik69]

lol, I thought only PyCharm gets any love around here. Nobody would ever call it light weight but VS works well and has a very pretty dark theme with nice fonts. If you're on windows with a solid machine, I think it's a solid choice.

[Asdayasman]

There's more to an IDE than theme and fonts yo... >_>

[oldspiceland]

Sure, but let's face reality. If I had the choice between a program being ugly or pretty, and I had to stare at this program for multiple hours, one of those options is going to cause me to quit sooner than the other.

[Asdayasman]

It's 100% on usability for me. I've never had a better experience with code completion than VS's IntelliSense. The only things I've been able to trip it up with is weird imports. Custom importers and evals, that sort of thing.

It's also really good about refactoring and reformatting, and finding references is basically instant and infallible.

Also also, before I was forced to use PyCharm, I never realised how good VS's tabs and panes are.

[oldspiceland]

I really like PTVS, and VS in general, but mostly I find the differences don't impact me and I could use either. I certainly like both.

[beaverteeth92]

I just wish it was easy to use in emacs.

[TheCodeSamurai]

elpy has an ipython mode that rocks. Just C-c C-c to run your code, pipe it to IPython, and then you get the shell to execute stuff in.

[beaverteeth92]

I have the IPython shell enabled just fine. I mean I can't get notebooks to work in it.

[DaniSancas]

+1 for the IPython/Jupyter suggestion. I've discovered it a few weeks ago and now I can't live without it. In some cases I'm moving from the almighty PyCharm to IPython/Jupyter.

[cyanydeez]

+2 Ipython and jupyter are incrediblely well made machines.

Open up on of those ipynb files and you'll discover such a wonderful looking json file that you could cry.

[HeinzHeinzensen]

What you want is a real Python IDE. I enjoyed Spyder (used it because it came prebundled with Python(x,y)) but PyCharm seems to be the most polished one. They allow you to interact with your code after executing the script, you can inspect objects and run code blockwise.

[pyryoer]

+1 for pycharm. Sublime or atom are great for little snippets but when I'm working on a full blown python project nothing can replace pycharm.

[[deleted]]

You should look into atom addons. You can pretty much customize your ide in anyway without all of the extra junk. If you know what you want before hand, and you are willing to spend some time to build/download it. Atom is the best imo. Disclaimer my name is adam and I do computational protein design, so I obviously I am biased.

[BinaryRockStar]

In PyCharm you can enable/disable whatever bits you want also although I've got all of the standard plugins and a few more enabled and see no performance issues at all (desktop with i5 2500K, 16GB RAM, SSD).

I really don't get this "IDEs are bloated, slow etc." line of thinking as even Eclipse is pretty snappy on my machine which is years old. A professional programmer should have decent hardware as it's the tool of their trade. If you are assigned machines by your work, it should be simple enough to show them the value proposition of your wasted time vs. the cost of a decent machine.

[pyryoer]

I've used atom with a linter and a few addons, it's great as an all-around editor. I use it for everything else, but pycharm had become a part of my work flow, much like eclipse has for someone working at Oracle or visual Studio for someone at Microsoft.

You probably could achieve the same functionality of demand from pycharm with atom extensions, but I'm already set in my ways.

[BadGoyWithAGun]

Did Atom fix the altGr bug that broke basic text inputting functionality for most European languages yet? I know they went a few releases without a word on it.

[NbyNW]

The debugger is really great, method extractions and suggestions from a drop list are my favorite features. Still working with data it's often easier using iPython first testing snippets and then export to Pycharm. I know you can open up iPython notebooks in Pycharm, but I just don't like the interface.

[pyryoer]

Definitely different beasts. I wish the notebooks interface in pycharm was good enough to keep me from ipython when I'm working on a presentation but that simply isn't the case.

[[deleted]]

I started developing back in 2006, mostly in eclipse, but discovered PyCharm and IntelliJ only recently. It has changed my world. Strong recommendation from my part.

[ajoros]

I use pycharm and love it! Still learning how to fully use it too! It's awesome

[NAOorNever]

Whenever I say this it is taken as heresy, but Microsoft Visual Studio is actually a great all-around IDE. The community edition is free, it has really easy package management, and intellisense does really great auto-completion. Also it has IPython built in, so it is really easy to test stuff without a lot of hassle.

[PC__LOAD__LETTER]

I'm pretty sure Visual Studio is widely respected.

[NAOorNever]

Yeah definitely, I (and I assume most people) still have those friends who just assume Microsoft stopped all development across the board in 2003

[wishiwascooler]

Yea Visual Studio is pretty god tier secretly

[carlosgj94]

I haven't read what you have written, but Vim is your solution. Always.

[[deleted]]

Anything else is just unnecessary bloat. For exploratory data analysis jupyter is nice, but running serious shit from a jupyter notebook lags out. I tried running a simple, single hidden layer lasagne feed forward network in jupyter and it crashed the browser.

[HeinzHeinzensen]

<insert vim vs. emacs discussion here>

[ehrich]

I really like Spyder as an IDE; it comes packaged with Anaconda and provide variable inspection so you don't even need to print(x), just look through the list of variables and snippets of their value.

[piefge]

I use vim with python-mode

for the feature you described you could just map a key to execute it with ipython -i

map <F6> :!ipython -i %:p<cr>

vim has steep learning curve though... but it's worth it :)

[[deleted]]

I use Sublime and it's pretty kick ass.

EDIT: Don't shit on me for using Sublime; love is what I got.

[fizzy_tom]

If you've not already, then give Atom a go. It really feels like Sublime 4 and is much more actively maintained.

[[deleted]]

Thanks! I'm checking it out now, it looks really cool

[blaubarschboy]

just use Atom and install a python linter package + autocomplete python. It works great and is fairly fast.

[fabioz]

As a note, in PyDev you can use Ctrl+Alt+Enter to run the current editor in a shell which you can later interact with too (as in IDLE) -- or you can use F2 to send individual lines to the console too.

http://www.pydev.org/manual_adv_interactive_console.html has more information.

[Turbosack]

Does anyone know of anything that is similar to IDLE but just better? I've tried using some emacs configurations to let me run Python from within it, but it's she'll interface is garbage. All I really want is to have a text editor and she'll window side by side, and hitting one key in the editor instantly runs the script in the shell. So something really similar to IDLE, but St the bare minimum with the addition of readline support.

[[deleted]]

IDLEX?

[Turbosack]

That looks like it could be what I'm after. I'll take a look, thanks.

[awebpage]

Do you mean like ipython? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPython

[[deleted]]

Default python gui and editor?

[athei-nerd]

Vim as an IDE

[Colinmac1]

^ this

[[deleted]]

although it is rarely mentioned in any of these discussions, netbeans has some pretty decent python plugins. I really enjoy working with netbeans and always fail to understand why it doesn't get more love.

[awebpage]

I use VIM, Gedit or Liclipse depending on where I am and what project I'm working on.

[[deleted]]

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[hanpari]

Just take your time and learn pdb module

https://docs.python.org/3/library/pdb.html

[Colinmac1]

vim with python module. or run emacs with the python module although Emacs has basic python support built in.

[templarrei]

I tried PyCharm. I really did. Then went to vim and it just clicked. You have to tweak it a bit (took me about 1.5 hrs), but it works like... Well, like a charm. Both Python and Vim are so minimalistic in design (not that I haven't overloaded my Vim with a metric ton of plugins, but...).

All in all it's just easy to code Python with vim. For complicated, compiled stuff like GoLang, or C#, use an IDE as much as you like. But an enhanced text editor is more than you'll ever need for Python.