Python 3 IDE for teaching [closed]

Answer 1

The Python IDLE has most of these features (never used the debugger before so I don't know how good it is). It's probably the most minimalist Python IDE out there. See http://docs.python.org/library/idle.html for more. IBM also did an overview of IDLE here.

Also, it's already included in the Windows binary (which is what most schools use, at least here), so you won't have to do any special work to get it up and running. It's available for Linux too.

I've never tried PyScripter before, but it does seem to offer what you need in an IDE and seems fairly simple. Only con is that it's Windows only.

Answer 2

Wing IDE is free for classroom use, including the Wing Pro and Wing Personal product levels. See https://wingware.com/store/free

Answer 3

I'm going to go in the opposite direction of Eclipse/Pydev (too big) and recommend SciTE (too small). No, I'm not comfortable even calling it an IDE, but it really nails points 1 and 2, and it is extremely lightweight, suitable for even the wimpiest possible computers that are capable of running Python 3 (or Python 2.3 for that matter).

I think Python is such a nice, small, simple language, if you are only teaching the basics, that you really don't need a full-blown IDE. I actually find learning an IDE more difficult than learning Python; plus having an IDE sometimes obscures what is part of the language and what is part of the development environment.

Edit: The list of criteria in the original question was edited. Now SciTE actually meets at least the first three. At the time of this edit, those are (1) runs on Windows and Linux, (2) has typical programming editor features like syntax highlighting and so forth, (3) has a button to execute the script.