Autocompletion in dynamic language IDEs, specifically Python in PyDev

Question

I\'m new to Python, with a background in statically typed languages including lots and lots of Java.

I decided on PyDev in eclipse as an IDE after checking features/

Answer 1

In my opinion, the Python shell is a much better place to explore new modules than relying on an IDE. Don't forget, in Python you can do anything in the shell that you can do in a program, because there's no separate compilation step. And in the shell, you can use dir(x) to find all the properties and methods of x, whether x is a module, a class, or whatever.

Even better, the enhanced iPython shell does provide tab completion for all objects.

In fact because of this, many Python programmers - myself included - don't use an IDE at all, but just a simple text editor (I use VIM).