Holcombe:PythonIDEs

Running python interactively from the Terminal alone is frustrating because you can't use arrow keys for history, no auto-complete, etc. Also there is no text editor linked to it. You will probably want to use an IDE that has built in text editor

Dr. Python

Dr. Python is good because it checks indentation. Instead of using {} to delimit code blocks, it uses indentation like so: if X

 asdf
 asdf

dddd ---Each line needs to be offset by the same number of spaces/tabs. Dr. Python checks to make sure this is true so you're not tripped up by invisible characters like tabs masquerading as spaces

if X

 asdf
 asdf

IPython

Doesn't have a text editor, but at least gives you a command line that's better with command history, tab completion,

In my .profile file in my home directory I added the following lines:

PYTHONSTARTUP="pythonstartup.py"
export PYTHONSTARTUP
PYTHONPATH="~/Library/IPython"
export PYTHONPATH

I then created a pythonstartup.py file so that IPython automatically run when start python. IPython has trouble finding readline, hence the second line:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0,'/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/site-packages/readline-2.5.1-py2.5- macosx-10.5-i386.egg')
import IPython 
sys.argv = [sys.argv[0], '-pylab'] #needed to allow interactive plotting
IPython.Shell.start().mainloop()

To quickly open code from IPython and edit it, I added this to my .profile:

alias edit='open -a TextWrangler'
EDITOR="edit -w" #w is special flag allowing TextWrangler to be used, see man page for edit
export EDITOR

Also customize coloring and such by editing this file /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ipython-0.9.1-py2.5.egg/IPython/UserConfig/ipy_user_conf.py