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<h1>Development Environments</h1>

<p>A development environment is a combination of a text editor and the Python

interpreter. The text editor allows you to write the code. The interpreter

provides a way to execute the code you've written. A text editor can be

as simple as Notepad on Windows or more complicated as a complete integrated

development environment (IDE) such as

<a href="https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/">PyCharm</a> which runs on any major

operating system.</p>

<h2>Why is a development environment necessary?</h2>

<p>Python code needs to be written, executed and tested to build

applications. The text editor provides a way to write the code. The

interpreter allows it to be executed. Testing to see if the code does what

you want can either be done manually or by unit and functional tests. </p>

<h2>A development environment example</h2>

<p>Here's what I (the author of Full Stack Python,

<a href="/about-author.html">Matt Makai</a>) use to develop most of my Python

applications. I have a Macbook Pro with Mac OS X as its base operating

system. <a href="/operating-systems.html">Ubuntu 14.04 LTS</a> is virtualized on top

with <a href="https://www.parallels.com/">Parallels</a>. My code is written in

<a href="http://www.vim.org/">vim</a> and executed with the

<a href="https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7.8/">Python 2.7.x</a> interpreter

via the command line. I use virtualenv to create separate Python interpreters

with their own isolated

<a href="/application-dependencies.html">application dependencies</a> and

<a href="http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.org/en/latest/">virtualenvwrapper</a>

to quickly switch between the interpreters created by virtualenv.</p>

<p>That's a common set up but you can certainly write great code with a much

less expensive set up or a cloud-based development environment.</p>

<h2>Open source development environments</h2>

<p><a href="http://www.vim.org/">vim</a> is my editor of choice and installed by default

on most *nix systems.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">emacs</a> is another editor often used

on *nix.</p>

<p><a href="http://pydev.org/">PyDev</a> is a Python IDE plug in for

<a href="https://www.eclipse.org/">Eclipse</a>.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sublimetext.com/">Sublime Text</a> versions 2 and 3 (currently

in beta) are popular text editors that can be extended with code completion,

linting, syntax highlighting and other features using plugins.</p>

<p><a href="https://atom.io/">Atom</a> is an open source editor built by the

<a href="https://github.com">GitHub</a> team.</p>

<h2>Python-specific IDEs</h2>

<p><a href="https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/">PyCharm</a> is a Python-specific IDE

built on <a href="https://www.jetbrains.com/">JetBrains</a>' platform. There are

free editions for students and open source projects.</p>

<p><a href="https://wingware.com/">Wing IDE</a> is a paid development environment with

integrated debugging and code completion.</p>

<p><a href="http://komodoide.com/">Komodo</a></p>

<h2>Hosted development environment services</h2>

<p>In the past couple of years several cloud-based development environments

have popped up. These can work great for when you're learning or stuck on

a machine with only a browser but no way to install your own software. Most

of these have free tiers for getting started and paid tiers as you scale

up your application.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.nitrous.io/">Nitrous.io</a></p>

<p><a href="https://c9.io/">Cloud9</a></p>

<p><a href="https://www.terminal.com/">Terminal</a></p>

<p><a href="https://koding.com/">Koding</a></p>

<h2>Development environment resources</h2>

<p>If you're considering the cloud-based development environment route, check

out this

<a href="http://readwrite.com/2014/08/14/cloud9-koding-nitrousio-integrated-development-environment-ide-coding">great article comparing Cloud9, Koding and Nitrous.io</a>

by Lauren Orsini. She also explains more about what a cloud IDE is and is

not.</p>

<p>Real Python has an awesome, detailed post on

<a href="https://realpython.com/blog/python/setting-up-sublime-text-3-for-full-stack-python-development/">setting up your Sublime Text 3 environment</a>

as a full-fledged IDE.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/env/">Hitchhiker's Guide to Python</a>

has a page dedicated to development environments.</p>

<p><a href="http://pedrokroger.net/choosing-best-python-ide/">Choosing the best Python IDE</a>

is a review of six IDEs. PyCharm, Wing IDE and PyDev stand out above the

other three in this review.</p>

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<a href="/">Full Stack Python</a> is an open book that explains

each Python web application stack layer and provides the

best web resources for those topics.

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<a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Introduction</a>

<a href="/web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/django.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Django</a>

<a href="/flask.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Flask</a>

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<a href="/other-web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Other Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/deployment.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Deployment</a>

<a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Servers</a>

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Platform-as-a-service</a>

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Operating Systems</a>

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Servers</a>

<a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">WSGI Servers</a>

<a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Source Control</a>

<a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Dependencies</a>

<a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Databases</a>

<a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">NoSQL Data Stores</a>

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<a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Task Queues</a>

<a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Programming Interfaces</a>

<a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">API Integration</a>

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<a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Logging</a>

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<a href="/web-application-security.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Application Security</a>

<a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Best Python Resources</a>

<a href="/development-environments.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item active">Development Environments</a>

<a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">About the Author</a>

<a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Change Log</a>

<a href="/future-directions.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Future Directions</a>

<a href="/what-full-stack-means.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">What "Full Stack" Means</a>

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