What software is needed for Python?

[TimHayes]

I have started to wrap myself around Python. What software do I need to begin writing scripts/code? I have ArcGIS 10.1 (ArcInfo), some tell me I need Microsoft's Visual Studio. I hope someone here can provide me the answer.

[AndrewChapkowski]

You need an python installed and an editor.

There are many free IDEs like pythonwin or eclipse with pydev.

There are also pay ones as well like WING.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous User]

Also, in your "All Programs" > ArcGIS folder there should be a Python 2.6 folder.  Inside that you can find an IDLE (python GUI) toolkit, which is a python scripting window for writing stand alone scripts.  To use ArcGIS functions, just import the arcpy module. That is what I use.  Hope this helps too!

Caleb

[ChristopherThompson]

The easiest thing as suggested is using the IDLE software - that provides a command line window where you can run commands and get immediate feedback, and then open a text editing window where you can type in lines or paste from the command line window and then save as a python (with a .py) file.  Another one that is simple to use is Notepad++ which is very good for managing things like indentation (which is critical in python and can get to be confusing sometimes) and managing blocks of code.  Good luck and have fun!

[KimOllivier]

Esri uses Pythonwin for training. It is a wrapper around IDLE to make it much nicer than the raw IDLE interface for Windows. Free.

Recommended.

It is called win32all because it has additional functions to interface with the win32 API. Since Arc Desktop is only on Windows this is a useful addition. http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/. I cannot see how anyone would be developing geoprocessing scripts in Linux.

Since geoprocessing scripts are so simple (in python terms) a more complex debugging environment such as Wing or Eclipse is not justified. Most of your problems will be in the geoprocessing tools where single step python tools will be useless. I keep trying the other development environments but always come back to Pythonwin.

Pythonwin allows you to enter test parameters which makes debugging scripts easier, simulating the dialog entries. Intellisense (command completion) for tools is supported if you import arcpy in the interactive window. This is almost essential now that geoprocessing tools are case sensitive.

[ChrisSnyder · Accepted solution]

PythonWin gets my vote too... It's simple, clean, does what I need, and is free. I've been using it since ArcGIS v9.0 (6-7 years?).

Secret Hint: The PythonWin install package is actually included on the ArcGIS install CD/DVD... but it is not auto installed like Python is... you have to manually install it yourself.