When comparing Kate vs IDLE, the Slant community recommends Kate for most people. In the question“What are the best Python IDEs or editors for beginners?” Kate is ranked 9th while IDLE is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Kate is:
Has a terminal that can sync to the location of your document, letting you compile or run your program quickly or run quick commands, all without leaving the editor.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Integrated terminal
Has a terminal that can sync to the location of your document, letting you compile or run your program quickly or run quick commands, all without leaving the editor.
Pro Project mode
Kate allows you to make projects to simplify the organisation of your code. This brings in additional organization of an IDE without the overhead.
Pro Fast and minimaistic
Kate is pretty fast and lightweight. This helps it with it's start up speed.
Pro Syntax highlighting
Kate supports syntax highlighting for over 180 languages, from Assembler to Zsh.
Pro Edit over FTP, SSH, or other protocols
Kate uses KDE's input and output libraries to read and write files, allowing seamless integration with FTP, SMB, SFTP, and many other protocols.
Pro Thriving plugin ecosystem
Lots of plugins allow Kate to expand or shrink based on your needs. It includes GDB integration, XML completion, and symbol viewing to speed up programming.
Pro By far one of the best and lightest text editors.
Notepads alternative (for the Windows users).
Pro Vi entry mode
Kate has a vi entry mode.
Pro Sometimes simple is best
For short scripts, a heavyweight IDE just gets in the way. It's also easier for beginners to understand.
Pro Written in pure Python/tkinter
You can dig in and change how it works.
Pro Included in standard Python distributions
You probably already have it.
Pro Debugger
It has one.
Cons
Con Hard to install on Windows or OS X
Kate can be a little hard to install and configure, especially for beginners.
On Linux or BSD, it can be easily installed from your distribution's repositories.
Con No Tabbing for Files or Shell instances
Idle's Interactive Python Shell and the Python Text Editor are separate window applications. Many would expect them to be unified together within a single window. To create a python program file, or module, the user first opens Idle (It's Interactive Shell), then the user goes to [File] and [New File] to open the Idle Text Editor. Plus, every time a new python file is opened, a new instance of Idle runs separately. So, there are no tabbed modules. That's clumsy approach that adds the complexity of juggling around many Idle instances.
