miercuri, 25 septembrie 2013

5 sleek IDEs for python, all free.

To say that I like python would be an understatement, I really love python and that's why I looked over a few options when it comes to IDEs, and chose five close to my heart. This will not be an objective exposition but a subjective one, so I'll try to keep it short and put in the foreground some unique traits from my experience I had with each IDE. And by sleekness I don't mean meretricious glossiness but some kind of neatness earned through character, even if that is completely subjective, again.

Aptana -  includes PyDev out of the box so you don't have to install it, very useful for those familiar with Eclipse and those that develop for Web and use python at the same time and want to keep it all in one place. Works also with IronPython.

Jet Brains PyCharm - an acclaimed commercial IDE with a lot of features was released for free only for python, makes me think that python was a good investment in the end. Works also with IronPython.

Light Table, smooth both in design and workflow, still at initial stages but I think it deserves a call.

Python Tools for Visual Studio - the only free version of Visual Studio and if you download the PTVS integrated with VS 2013 you can have the only free version of VS to my knowledge that works in one install and without any trouble, brings all the power of VS to python programming.  Works also with IronPython and WPF.

SharpDevelop  Works very well with IronPython and WPF(has also design possibilities) and also offers code conversion from C# and VB.NET to python among others. And to my knowledge is the only way you can compile a .NET application using IronPython.

To end, I think that python not only receives a lot of attention in IDEs, libraries, etc but also a lot of support in the Internet community, and it is in my opinion a well deserved attention for a promising language.
I would really like to hear your subjective experience and what you like or not in some of these IDEs or other IDEs for that mater.

P.S.This is my first blog post in a while.