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Add to SafariWhen comparing Eclipse with PyDev vs IDLE, the Slant community recommends Eclipse with PyDev for most people. In the question“What are the best Python IDEs or editors?” Eclipse with PyDev is ranked 22nd while IDLE is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose Eclipse with PyDev is:
Eclipse has a large and active community, which has resulted in a wide variety of plugins.
Specs
Question 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 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 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 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.
