Setting Up an Integrated Development Environment

In this tutorial we'll set up an Integrated Development Environment or IDE. An IDE is a collection of programs which allow you to write and test code. Ideally your IDE should contain:

1. A code editor
2. Debugger
3. A terminal to run code

For python a text editor with a terminal will work fine for most projects. Here's a breakdown of the top two choices:

1. Visual Studio Code

Developed by Microsoft, it was first released in April 29, 2015, and made open source in November 18, 2015. It is now considered one of the best code editors for scripting languages such as Javascript, Typescript and Python.

Benefits:

• Open source
• Wide selection of extensions
• Auto complete for delimiters (brackets and quotation marks automatically double when you type one)
• Suggestions based on declared variables and imported packages
• Class peeking (save time by hovering over a class to see its options instead of heading to the documentation)
• Syntax highlighting
• Integrated terminal capable of running virtual environments, ssh and psql
• Auto-formatting
• Option to sort imports
• Outline
• Timeline
• Debugging support
• Robust linting
• Workspaces automatically load with virtual environment (for python development)
• Can be installed remotely on a webserver

Drawbacks:

• Can be a bit of a challenge to switch over from other editors (but there are many extensions to compensate for this)
• Interface can be too cluttered for some

2. Atom

Another open source option released by Github on June 25th, 2015. Previously considered the best text editor for scripting languages, it has since been overtaken by Visual Studio Code.

Benefits:

• Open source
• Wide selection of extensions
• Auto complete for delimiters
• Suggestions based on declared variables
• Syntax highlighting
• Integrated terminals available as an add-ons
• Git Integration
• Clean, simple Interface
• Easy access to installed packages

Drawbacks:

• No suggestions based on imported packages
• Can have significant lag upon opening after using for a while
• No debugging

So now you've been introduced to two of the top choices for working with python scripts as of 2020, you can even download both and play around with them for yourself. It is important to ensure that you're comfortable with whatever you choose because you'll be doing the bulk of your work here.