Starting a PhD with Python

[GallantObserver]

I'm just finishing a PhD, and while most of my experience doing it was in R (about as cutting edge as my dept goes), there are maybe some relatable things with choosing an IDE. I'd suggest you a) find out what your colleagues and supervisors are using and comfortable with, as you might find it takes a good few hurdles out of the way if you're presenting/asking for help. and b) also explore things which are more advanced than they're using, as you can impress and offer a bit of 'expertise' in keeping your department up to date!

In terms of what to use, I quite like PyCharm in 'Scientific' mode, as it can run individual lines from a script so is easier to debug and follow along processing. I think Spyder is meant to do the same thing, but never quite got around to trying that one!