Python Development Environments

A development environment is a tool or set of tools that allow developers to create, execute, debug, and test programs. As Python is an interpreted language, the simplest development environment for Python is the interpreter itself. The Python interpreter provides an interactive mode that can be used to execute small programs, view program state, visualize data, and debug programs. For complex Pythom programs, a more sophistocated environment is required. In this lesson, we will look at a number of development environments specifically aimed at Python development:

• IPython - An enhancment of the interpreter that provides an interactive shell to allow mult-line editing, and includes a variety of features such as syntax highlighting, input history, and output caching
• Jupyter Notebooks - Combined with IPyton, provides a web application that allows the creation and sharing of documents containing live code, equations, and visualizations.
• PyDev - A fully-fledged integrated development environment that manages project creation, editing, execution, and debugging, as well as providing integration with Git and other version control systems.