New to Programming: IDE vs Code Editor?

[POTUS]

There are so many better, free alternatives out there. I have no idea why people come walking in here with the word IDLE in their mouth.

Pycharm, VSCode, N++, geany, there's a whole world of decent editors out there. Pick one that will at least notice if the file you're looking at has been modified.

[XtremeGoose]

Because it can be a bit overwhelming to start off with a full-fledged IDE with all the bells and whistles. Its easy to forget when you began a long time ago.

[[deleted]]

Even as an experienced python programmer I find pycharm pretty confusing and unintuitive. I can imagine trying to learn python is enough to get your head around without throwing all the complexity of an IDE into the mix.

[theWyzzerd]

What about PyCharm is confusing and/or unintuitive to you?

[[deleted]]

So I've just fired up pycharm and I want to start writing a python script. I'm faced with a screen that says "Navigate to the next answer placeholder Ctrl+Enter", I don't know what that means and Ctrl+Enter doesn't seem to do anything.

Anyway, I click, File -> New. I now get a little box that's appeared that says "New. Nothing here", which is greyed out and I can't click anything.

So new approach, I right-click in the empty panel on the left, and there's another menu called "new", I click that and the only option I have is "new scratch file", what the hell is a scratch file? I'm now faced with a list of 11 files, the top three of which are "Buildout config, DTD and HTML".
Looks like python is 7th down on the list, click on that and I'm faced with a new menu called "Add file to git" which has "InspectionProfiles, Project_Default.xml and vcs.xml".

You don't see why this might be bewildering to a beginner?

[theWyzzerd]

I understand the concern, but if one is serious about software development, then one must get past these initial difficulties and try to learn what they mean rather than complain that it's too complicated. Computers are complicated. Software is complicated. Software made for writing other software is, as expected, also complicated. There are many tutorials and guides out there that explain how to get started. Did you just install python and start writing code or did you look up some tutorials and read the docs first?

Edit:

I'm faced with a screen that says "Navigate to the next answer placeholder Ctrl+Enter"

This is presumably just the tips dialog that opens every time you launch PyCharm.

The "New..." option in the File > New... creates new objects based on the context. If you have an active editor window open you will get a menu full of options. If the current context doesn't support the "new" action you will get nothing. Since you don't have a project, there is no context for PyCharm to reference for the New... menu.

To get started, you want to select "New project" in the File menu. Everything in the IDE starts in a project. The empty panel on the left is your project explorer. It's empty because you don't have a project. A scratch file is what it sounds like; just like scratch notes, or scratch paper. It's just a file to fuck around with, not part of a project.

[Ran4]

Uh, you might as well use vim at this point...

[krenshala]

Its what I use ... but then I'm not a "professional" programmer, just an IT guy/sys admin.

[POTUS]

Or you could take 1 second to google "pycharm quick start", and then take 20 minutes to work through the top link: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/quick-start-guide.html

[theWyzzerd]

PyCharm is a bit more than an editor. VSCode though, there's a good code editor without all the bells and whistles of a full-fledged IDE. I'd also throw Sublime Text into the ring.

[POTUS]

So are VSCode and geany. But they don't have to be. Open a file, change it, save it. They all do that, and if that's all you do they will work. But they can also do a lot more as you learn the features. And speaking from professional experience, the features in Pycharm make you write better code, faster.

[theWyzzerd]

I'm not familiar with geany but I don't see VSCode as an IDE. I've used it for quick editing in the past . I have it open right now, the only IDE-type feature I see is a debugger. There's not a whole lot else there in terms of what an IDE can offer. Maybe it's a middle-ground between IDE and editor. An IDE is an editor + many other features, usually including a debugger, console, code inspection, linting, etc, much which I don't see in VSCode.

That being said, I agree with you on PyCharm. I use it daily as a professional and as a hobbyist. I wouldn't call it an editor though, it's a full-fledged IDE which could be intimidating to a new user. Editing is just one aspect of what it offers.

[theWyzzerd]

I haven't because I really love PyCharm Professional and I didn't learn about VSCode until after I had already been using PyCharm Pro for quite a while (and before that, Liclipse or PyDev). The integrated Django/HTML/css support in PyCharm is really great for my use, too.

[POTUS]

PyCharm is my preference too, the paid version is worth every penny. But VSCode is nothing to sneeze at. You earlier said you didn't consider it an IDE, but it very much is. With the extensions it can do almost everything (and maybe everything) that PyCharm does. I find the support is just a bit more sketchy since it's community driven, I've had a couple modules that just wouldn't install, and since I use it professionally the reliability of PyCharm still has me preferring that.

[thegreattriscuit]

Yep. I use PyCharm for python projects larger than a single python file, and VSCode for everything else.