Page 69 - Beginning Programming with Pyth - John Paul Mueller

writing Python applications. This book doesn’t tell you much about them because Anaconda performs every task needed and it’s readily available free of charge. However, as your skills increase, you might find the features in other tools such as Komodo Edit (http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit/downloads) more to your liking. You can find a great list of these tools at https://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments
Understanding Why IDEs Are Important
A good question to ask is, why do you need an IDE to work with Python if the command-line tool works fine? For that matter, Python actually comes with a limited IDE called Integrated DeveLopement Environment (IDLE). Most people probably question the need for anything more during the learning process and possibly to develop full-fledged applications. Unfortunately, the tools that come with Python are interesting and even helpful in getting started, but they won’t help you create useful applications with any ease. If you choose to work with Python long term, you really need a better tool for the reasons described in the following sections.
Creating better code
A good IDE contains a certain amount of intelligence. For example, the IDE can suggest alternatives when you type the incorrect keyword, or it can tell you that a certain line of code simply won’t work as written. The more intelligence that an IDE contains, the less hard you have to work to write better code. Writing better code is essential because no one wants to spend hours looking for errors, called bugs.
IDEs vary greatly in the level and kind of intelligence they provide, which is why so many IDEs exist. You may find the level of help obtained from one IDE to be insufficient to your needs, but another IDE hovers over you like a mother hen. Every developer has different needs and, therefore, different IDE requirements. The point is to obtain