PTS 8: Brief on IDEs - mentoring philosophy

12.01.2020 - no code for this post - Back to top

I had a brief conversation on IDEs the other day with a new student that come to work with me for this semester. She is new to Python and therefore the IDE ecosystem is unknown to her. I wrote her this e-mail to introduce the matter and motivate, and mentor, her on the IDE quest. I felt to share it here. I deeply apologize to the developers of the IDEs I refer if there is something technically wrong in my words. The text bellow does not compromise the privacy of anyone as the email is completely neutral and could be equally addressed to any new Python student.

Hi,

Sharing with you some information on IDEs (Integrated development environment) because you showed interest. In the muggle’s words of mine, an IDE is basically a text editor with enhanced features that connect the code you are writing with the actual programming language so it allows you to use cool features, like F5 to run the code on a side window.

There are countless of different options outside. It is a completely personal decision, and is perfectly fine to change IDE every week if necessary until one finds the one that best fits the needs and personality.

I enjoyed the way you are using Spyder actually, you very quickly got the flow of it and used many features, which is really great!

A quick search online and you will find on guru99 the 11 best IDEs for Python in 2020.

As you can see Spyder comes second. I know most of them and I don’t like any 😋 but I am a very special person on this, with a very special mind set jejej. You have, with time, please do not obsess with this now, search for yours. It really depends on the type of person one is and the job at hands.

Because I like a lot light weight programs and I dislike automatic features, I used for many years Geany. It is very simple and LACKS a lot of nice features that Spyder has. To beginning with it is a general IDE not a Python-directed one like the others in the guru99’s list. Though, it had 3 or 4 functionalities which I really liked and that is why I kept using it [for years]. When I started feeling that I was needing new coding experiences, I changed to Vim. Vim is not an IDE, is a text editor btw.

Taking home message is that if you are using one that feels to big and you loose the point of what you are doing because of the so many features continuously poping on the screen, than, try another simpler one. Instead, if you feel that the one you use gets short because you are already very proficient and need something more, try another. If it is a rainy day and you are at home taking tea and you feel to try another, do it! 🙂

I shared this with you so you get a bit of introduction to this other world in programming, that is the choice and battle for the best IDE; and because I noticed you were very interested. I like to talk about these things so feel free to come by.

see you tomorrow,