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3 Top Python IDE for Beginner Programmer

The perfect IDE that allowed you to learn programming from the beginning

Image by Author
Image by Author

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IDE or Integrated Development Environment is a code Programming tool used for writing, testing, debugging, and intuitively compile code. IDE is a compulsory tool for any programming activity, and because of that, many kinds of IDE are developed – including IDE for Python.

While many choices available, not every IDE provide you with material for learning the Python programming language. Hence, you might want to look into another IDE that offers any beginner programmer’s learning capability – especially for people who want to start their Python journey.

In this article, I want to outline my top 3 Python IDE suitable for any Beginner Programmer. Let’s get into it.


1. CodeSkulptor

CodeSkulptor is an In-Browser IDE developed specifically for teaching Python for Beginner. It is developed in 2012 for students in the classrooms to study together without installing any specific IDE and ensuring that all the Python environment is similar. Because it is developed for students, it is perfect for beginners to learn Python.

CodeSkulptor3 IDE (Image by Author)
CodeSkulptor3 IDE (Image by Author)

The above image is the IDE interface from CodeSkulptor, specifically for Python 3. There is a version for CodeSkulpor Python 2, but Python 2 is already outdated in the current data professional workflow when this article was written.

The IDE is simple; you only need to write your code on the left side (Code), showing the result on the right side (Output). However, because CodeSkulptor is developed for learning purposes, no debugging processes or additional extensions you could download within the environment.

Although, what you might want to see is the CodeSkulpor Documentation. I would show you in the image below.

CodeSkulptor3 Documentation (Image by Author)
CodeSkulptor3 Documentation (Image by Author)

The Documentation is a complete learning material for you who didn’t know about Python previously. The way it is written and constructed is perfect for any beginner to follow and learn many terms that you never knew before. That is why CodeSkulptor is perfect for beginners starting their Python journey and understanding more about the Programming language.


2. Thonny

Thonny is an IDE developed for learning and teaching programming at The University of Tartu, which you can download for free on the Bitbucket repository.

Image by Author
Image by Author

Thonny is very nice for beginners because it can show you the step-through statements and expressions with the assistant page’s help. Thonny offers a great editing function where a new window is opened with local variables, and the code is shown separately from your main code.

Assistant Tab (Image by Author)
Assistant Tab (Image by Author)

Moreover, Thonny helps your coding process by highlight any lines you make an error. For example, when you forget a bracket or making a typo, as shown in the image below.

Thonny highlight (Image by Author)
Thonny highlight (Image by Author)

When you have an error in your script, the code block would be highlighted by a grey colour from the line you start the error to the end. In this way, you can point out any error within your code.

Thonny also offers you the Python script debugging process, which runs neatly. You need to press Ctrl + F5, and the debugging process would start on its own. I would show you the example by debugging the above code.

Thonny Debugging (Image by Author)
Thonny Debugging (Image by Author)

The result is in the image above; I have a syntax error because I haven’t closed the parsing properly.

If you want to explore more, all the tools you can explore are available in the view tab shown below.

Thonny View Tab (Image by Author)
Thonny View Tab (Image by Author)

Overall, the purpose of Thonny is to give you a good understanding of how Python works under the hood and help you simplify the coding process. In my opinion, Thonny is suitable for a beginner who wants to learn more about the Python language.


3. Wing

Wing is a minimalist Python IDE developed to teaching beginner programming. The developer has written the companion book and video recording you could follow closely for learning Python using the Wing IDE. Let’s take a look at the Wing IDE in the image below.

Wing IDE (Image by Author)
Wing IDE (Image by Author)

As you can see in the above image, the IDE already contain a tutorial of the IDE and Python you could follow. The material is easy to follow for any beginner, and the IDE is simple enough for anybody to understand. Let’s see few features from Wing you could use for your learning.

First, we have the Auto-completion feature. This is useful when you want to have a quicker way for scripting.

Auto-Completion (Image by Author)
Auto-Completion (Image by Author)

Next, we have highlight features in Wing. During your coding process, you would eventually end up with a bunch of code. It is sometimes a mess, especially for beginners in coding. A highlighter feature is appreciated in this condition because it would help you pinpoint where you are in the coding process or where the error is. Let’s take an example in the below image.

Image by Author
Image by Author

You could see how my variable is highlighted and the other variable with the same name in the image above. Then you could see a slight red line which indicates the error. If we move our cursor there, we could highlight the cause of the error.

Image by Author
Image by Author

Another feature that I feel is useful for beginners is the debug feature. When running the debug feature, the process will try finding your coding error and what caused it. The debug example process is shown in the image below.

Image by Author
Image by Author

Finally, a feature that I like from Wing is the Search bar that is located easily for any individual to use. When writing my code, I am personally having a hard time tracking all the variables and the location of certain lines of code. With the search bar, the process is made easier.

Image by Author
Image by Author

As you can see from the image above, I could try using the search button, and all the code I want to find is highlighted. It doesn’t sound amazing, but the usefulness is massive, especially if you still learning.

Overall, Wing is easy to use IDE for beginners because it offers many learning materials and features that help the coding process.


Conclusion

Python is a programming language used by many data professionals. Python language becomes more important in many fields because it is easy to learn and having much community support. However, learning the Python programming language is still a challenge for some people.

In this article, I have outlined my 3 top Python IDE for Beginner Programming. They are:

  1. CodeSkulptor
  2. Thonny
  3. Wing

I hope it helps!


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