The Best IDE for Python: How to Choose It

IDEs or Integrated Development Environments are software that, during development, support programmers by incorporating the main development tools for writing software into a single interface. Python is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world and is therefore supported by numerous IDEs and code editors. If you're wondering how to choose the most suitable one, here's a guide for you. Let's see what the functions of an IDE are, what parameters to evaluate when choosing one, and what the 5 best IDEs for Python on the market today are.

Features of IDEs

Normally, for less extensive and complex functions, it might be sufficient to use a text editor. As coding and testing become more elaborate, including many files and unit tests, the use of a simple text editor can make things very difficult. Indeed, everything is easier if you have the ability to write, run, and debug code in a single program. And this is precisely the principle on which IDEs are based.

As we have just seen, there are indeed many software useful for writing Python code, which differ in terms of interface, purpose of use, and integrations. However, there are some features common to most IDEs:

• Text editor, a text editor to write or modify code;
• Syntax highlighter, to represent different syntactic elements of code (properties, tags, attributes) with different colors.
• Build automation tools, to automate the process of creating the software build and other related processes.
• Debugger, to test and identify potential bugs.
• Compiler, to compile source code into an executable.
• Interpreter, to run source code without the need to compile it.

5 Best IDEs for Python

So how do you choose which IDE to use? Beyond a developer's personal preferences, the choice should be based on the project's requirements. There are some essential requirements like auto-completion and syntax highlighting, and other requirements that might guide the choice like an automatic debugger or the reference system (some IDEs are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, others only for a few of these). Here's a list of the 5 best IDEs for Python according to the Astrorei team:

PyCharm

PyCharm is a dedicated IDE for Python that is quite popular among developers. Developed by JetBrains, it is a complete open-source cross-platform IDE (available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS) that allows you to focus on your project without having to switch between programs. It offers developers some extremely useful tools, the Pycharm Development Tool, which, for example, allow you to test scripts directly from the program via an integrated Python console within an editor window. Other features include:

• Instruction syntax completion,
• an online help desk,
• syntax error highlighting while writing code.

Thanks to these and other features, development with PyCharm is very smooth.

Eclipse + PyDev

Although not a dedicated IDE specifically for Python, Eclipse can be used for this purpose together with the PyDev plugin. The open-source plugin allows developers to use all Eclipse features while writing Python code. PyDev can be used to write code for Python, Jython, and IronPython. The plugin is recommended as part of the LiClipse bundle, which also offers support for C++, JavaScript, Dart, and many other programming languages.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a cross-platform editor available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Although owned by Microsoft, VSC is open-source and downloadable for free. It is based on Electron, a framework for building applications in Node.js, which makes it fast and lightweight. In addition to featuring things like debugging, an integrated Git controller, syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, snippets, and code refactoring, it is also customizable. In fact, you can modify both the editor's theme, keyboard shortcuts, and system preferences. At Astrorei, it's the most popular IDE, used by the entire team: it allows us to program in any language, easily and flexibly, simplifying our workflow.

IDLE

The minimalist IDE of Python called IDLE is recently gaining a lot of popularity among developers. It is named after Eric Idle of Monty Python. Cross-platform and extremely lightweight, it works directly from the Python shell (Interactive Interpreter). It offers a multi-window editor with a series of features such as multiple levels of undo, syntax coloring, simplified indentation, call tip suggestions, and the ability to use debugging. Idle is written 100% in Python and uses the Tkinter GUI toolkit.

Jupyter

Jupyter, whose name derives from the union of the three core programming languages, Julia, Python, and R, is not a true IDE but a client-server application for creating and sharing computational documents, and for this reason widely used in the scientific field and data visualization. Specifically, Jupyter Notebook offers a simple and streamlined experience in creating and sharing web documents exportable in HTML, PDF, Markdown, or Python. The notebook communicates with computational kernels using the Interactive Computing Protocol, an open network protocol based on JSON data over ZMQ and WebSocket.

After this article, we hope to have provided you with the tools to choose the best IDE among those that, according to our developers, are the 5 best IDEs for developing in Python.

Are you a Python developer? We are always looking for new talents to join our team! Check out our dedicated applications page and contact us!