M
R
r
That's like asking boxers or briefs, everybody thinks their choice is
the best. I like freedom if that gives you a hint.
M
Matthew Sacks
Wingware IDE is pretty good. It's not free though.
http://www.wingware.com/
http://www.wingware.com/
J
James Stroud
vim in one terminal, ipython in the other.
--
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095
http://www.jamesstroud.com
M
MattBD
I like Vim, that works really well for me when coding in Python.
Enable syntax highlighting and it's a great development environment.
It's a little tough at first but run vimtutor and you'll soon start to
get the hang of it.
IMHO, scripting languages like Python are generally better suited to
working with a text editor than an IDE.
S
Stef Mientki
I don't understand that, because in my opinion yields
IDE = texteditor + (much) more
please could you explain (as I'm very interested in user interfaces in
general )
cheers,
Stef
M
MattBD
Obviously, this is just my opinion. The great debate over which is
better, an IDE or text editor, has been going on for years, and no
doubt plenty of other people will disagree.
Really it depends what you are doing. Some languages are very tightly
integrated with an IDE, such as MS Visual C#, and as far as I can see
it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to use a text
editor with that language. If you only use one language and that has
an IDE you like, there's nothing wrong with sticking with that.
IDE's are often (but not always) designed for a specific language.
Text editors are more flexible and will generally work well with
virtually any language. You may lose a little in terms of language-
specific functionality such as autocompletion and fancy graphical
tools, but you gain in flexibility because the one text editor will
work well with many languages, so you can write programs in C, Perl,
Python, Ruby, or whatever takes your fancy, and still use the same
tools you're used to, which I'd argue makes you more productive as
you're working within a familiar environment. However, there are IDE's
which support multiple languages, such as Eclipse.
Also, I'm strongly of the opinion that using a text editor when you
get started is the way to go. You're more likely to take in every last
detail of something if you type out the commands in detail rather than
using autocompletion. Also, an IDE can add an unnecessary level of
complication - as well as learning a language you have to learn an
IDE, which can be extremely complex. So it can be simpler to just use
a text editor, which is often simpler.
Conversely, IDE's can be better for designing interfaces as they
generally allow you to design them in a way that's more intuitive to
most people.
It's not exactly true to say that an IDE = text editor + much more.
It's more about the nature of the features. A modern programmer's text
editor such as Vim is an extremely powerful and flexible piece of
software. I've just barely started to scratch the surface of what Vim
can do and I learn something new virtually every time I use it.
Although technically it can mean you have to do more typing than you
would with an IDE, it also makes it a lot faster to type the text you
put in.
An IDE will roll everything you need into one package, including the
compiler/interpreter, editor and debugger. A text editor does the text
editing only, but in practice most of them allow you to access the
command line from within the text editor (in Vim you just enter :!
followed by the command you want to run), so you can use other tools
from within the editor. I do most of my coding in Linux, so I would
write a program in Vim, save it, then enter something like :!python
example.py to run it.
At the end of the day it's personal taste. I've tinkered with a few
IDE's but I find text editors work better for me at the end of the
day, and Vim in particular is one that really works well for me. It
does depend on what you're doing. For larger projects sometimes a
dedicated IDE is better, but most decent text editors can do a lot of
the same things that an IDE can. It just requires a different
approach.
I'd recommend you check out this article:
http://osteele.com/archives/2004/11/ides
That gives a good insight into the whole IDE's vs text editors thing.
S
Stef Mientki
thanks Matthew,
for the extended answer
and the great link,
I'm going to study that carefully.
cheers,
Stef
for the extended answer
and the great link,
I'm going to study that carefully.
cheers,
Stef
C
Christof Donat
Hi,
Try to think of the operating system as the IDE. At least with Unix and
similar systems that is a really powerfull solution. It includes not only
vim, bash and make, but also stuff like e.g. ctags, awk, sed, etc. Even
python itsself is part of the system and can be used for special purpous
utilities like e.g. code generators.
If you need User Interface Design, there are quite powerful stand alone
tools, like e.g. the QtDesigner which can be used with that "OS IDE".
Christof
Try to think of the operating system as the IDE. At least with Unix and
similar systems that is a really powerfull solution. It includes not only
vim, bash and make, but also stuff like e.g. ctags, awk, sed, etc. Even
python itsself is part of the system and can be used for special purpous
utilities like e.g. code generators.
If you need User Interface Design, there are quite powerful stand alone
tools, like e.g. the QtDesigner which can be used with that "OS IDE".
Christof
A
Aahz
Just to register a contrary opinion: I *hate* syntax highlighting
C
Chris Jones
Real men hate syntax highlighting.
C
Christof Donat
Hi,
With vim you simply don't turn it on. Would that be OK for you?
Christof
With vim you simply don't turn it on. Would that be OK for you?
Christof
T
Thorsten Kampe
* Christof Donat (Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:14:25 +0100)
No. Even the /possibility/ of having syntax highlighting would indicate
wimpness and thus humiliate me.
Thorsten
No. Even the /possibility/ of having syntax highlighting would indicate
wimpness and thus humiliate me.
Thorsten
T
Tim Rowe
2009/2/1 MattBD said:
Why so? I don't see how it would be any different to any other
language. Admittedly I use the IDE because I like IDE's, but I don't
see why it wouldn't work with a text editor and make -- the command
line compiler is there.
A
andrew cooke
Just to register a contrary opinion: I *hate* syntax highlighting
you can use it in surprising ways, if the implementation is good
enough. when i used intellij with java i had the "syntax"
highlighting set so that everything was simple black+white, but
mutable state (i can't remember the exact details; perhaps it was just
variables that were assigned, i am not sure what happened with
attributes) was in bold. very neat - showed where the likely bugs
were in the code - and nothing to do with what you'd normally consider
syntax highlighting...
andrew
(last time i looked, intellij's support for python was not very good.
which is a pity, because it was an excellent ide - better than
eclipse, imho).
you can use it in surprising ways, if the implementation is good
enough. when i used intellij with java i had the "syntax"
highlighting set so that everything was simple black+white, but
mutable state (i can't remember the exact details; perhaps it was just
variables that were assigned, i am not sure what happened with
attributes) was in bold. very neat - showed where the likely bugs
were in the code - and nothing to do with what you'd normally consider
syntax highlighting...
andrew
(last time i looked, intellij's support for python was not very good.
which is a pity, because it was an excellent ide - better than
eclipse, imho).
C
Christof Donat
R
Robert Comstock
I am personally a fan of vim and ipython. But most of my development
is done on a remote system with ssh access. I have used many IDE's
over the years and personally I feel like they try to hard to do
everything for you that they end up doing very little the way I would
like. There are MANY text editors out there and all you need to do is
find the one that fits your development style. There are not so many
IDE's and I found they wanted me to fit their styles.
Why I like Vim:
1. Light and fast
2. Goes over ssh very well
3. Simple configuration
4. Lots of flexibility
5. Can your text editor do this?
Vim search and replace, with increment
:let i=1 | g/foo/s//\=i."morestuff"/ | let i=i+1
http://gdwarner.blogspot.com
6. Fast editing (once you have paid the price to learn it)
I think the reality is productity, I would not be productive trying to
write code on my computer then moving it to a server, it would be
difficult to duplicate the enviroment without leaving my PC a garbage
dump of packages I don't need. But that is not the case for many
people. I also like Kate, it has server me well in my quest to learn
vim.
Thanks,
Robert Comstock
Lenovo T61 2.2Ghz/3GB Ram, Arch Linux x86_64, KDE 4.2
is done on a remote system with ssh access. I have used many IDE's
over the years and personally I feel like they try to hard to do
everything for you that they end up doing very little the way I would
like. There are MANY text editors out there and all you need to do is
find the one that fits your development style. There are not so many
IDE's and I found they wanted me to fit their styles.
Why I like Vim:
1. Light and fast
2. Goes over ssh very well
3. Simple configuration
4. Lots of flexibility
5. Can your text editor do this?
Vim search and replace, with increment
:let i=1 | g/foo/s//\=i."morestuff"/ | let i=i+1
http://gdwarner.blogspot.com
6. Fast editing (once you have paid the price to learn it)
I think the reality is productity, I would not be productive trying to
write code on my computer then moving it to a server, it would be
difficult to duplicate the enviroment without leaving my PC a garbage
dump of packages I don't need. But that is not the case for many
people. I also like Kate, it has server me well in my quest to learn
vim.
Thanks,
Robert Comstock
Lenovo T61 2.2Ghz/3GB Ram, Arch Linux x86_64, KDE 4.2
A
Aahz
It makes my eyes bleed
J
Joe Riopel
I typically use vim/vi, because it's usually already installed on the
OS's I work with and vim for Windows works the same. Also, using the
same editor across these different OS's, I don't have to worry too
much soft/hard tabs. The contents of rc files on both Windows and
UNIX/Linux are the same too, so I can just maintain one run control
file for all OS's.
I have played around with some IDE's for python, and found that Komodo
Edit is pretty good. It's also free:
http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/
OS's I work with and vim for Windows works the same. Also, using the
same editor across these different OS's, I don't have to worry too
much soft/hard tabs. The contents of rc files on both Windows and
UNIX/Linux are the same too, so I can just maintain one run control
file for all OS's.
I have played around with some IDE's for python, and found that Komodo
Edit is pretty good. It's also free:
http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/
T
Thorsten Kampe
* Robert Comstock (Mon, 2 Feb 2009 06:06:02 -0800 (PST))
I hope my editor wouldn't let me do this...
Thorsten
I hope my editor wouldn't let me do this...
Thorsten