Although Pythonwin is nice, it’s a basic IDE. It doesn't have the feeling of power you get from Visual Studio. Fortunately, a reader left a comment about a cool, free Python IDE called SPE (Stani’s Python Editor). SPE has a bunch of cool features:
Spe is a python IDE with auto-indentation, auto completion, call tips, syntax coloring, syntax highlighting, class explorer, source index, auto todo list, sticky notes, integrated pycrust shell, python file browser, recent file browser, drag & drop, context help, ... Special is its blender support with a blender 3d object browser and its ability to run interactively inside blender. Spe ships with wxGlade (GUI designer), PyChecker (source code doctor) and Kiki (regular expression console). Spe is extensible with wxGlade.
Check out the UML view:
The installation was a little frustrating since I know don’t know much about Python yet, so here are the steps for hassle-free installation:
- Download and install the latest wxPython binaries for win32 and your Python version (which should be 2.4). I chose Ansi; you may choose Unicode if you need it.
- Download and install the latest release of SPE from here. You can also get to the downloads page by clicking the “Download latest release” link from the SPE home page.
- Navigate to the installation directory. This is usually $pythondir$ \Lib\site-packages\_spe . Double-click SPE. Create a shortcut to this file in your Start menu or on your desktop if you want.
If you need more help, SPE has a handy tutorial and a manual with lots of screen shots.