When comparing Eclipse with PyDev vs Kate, 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 Eclipse with PyDev is ranked 12th. 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
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Can be extended to have additional features through plugins
Eclipse has a large and active community, which has resulted in a wide variety of plugins.
Pro Feature rich including Django integration
Django Integration, Auto code completion, Multi language support, Integrated Python Debugging, code analysis, code templates ,smart indent, bracket matching, error markup, source control integration, code folding, UML Editing and viewing, and unit test integration.
Pro Good integration of interactive python console even in debugging mode
Pro Handles non-Python components well
If your project includes non-Python pieces (ie. Javascript, CSS, UML, etc) Eclipse tends to provide much better support for these than IDEs focused exclusively on Python.
Pro Can use different environments for different projects
It's very handy for managing multiple projects that each use their own virtualenv or conda environment, you can assign a different interpreter to each project and they will handle things like code completion correctly.
Pro Good font rendering
Because Eclipse is based on SWT, it uses the native font rendering and thus looks better than other IDEs on some Linux systems, where the Java font rendering is not optimal.
Pro One of the few that can debug Jython code
It handles both Jython and CPython.
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.
Cons
Con Just plugin for python, not full editor
It useful only if you use python as additional(secondary) language in your project on Eclipse
Con Plugins can be unstable
Though there are plenty of plugins to choose from, they aren't always reliable. Some aren't maintained, bug fixes can be slow, and you may need to download plugins from multiple sources.
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.
