IDE Fight: Geany (ooh) vs. gedit (What!?) (Don’t worry–it’s close)

In my Python pursuits,I’ve used three IDEs to write the code. Geany, IDLE, and gedit (aka ‘Text Editor’ in Ubuntu) (OK, OK! I know gedit’s actually a text editor! But I’m using it as an IDE! Calm down!)

I’m kind of developing a love for the bullet form of review, since it keeps things concise. Also note that this is not very technical, it’s just what Timmy-the-end-user likes and dislikes.

• I used IDLE for about five minutes. I didn’t like it. Don’t ask why, it’s the same feeling I had when I tried KDE. The gut-reaction, pseudo-phobia, I-can’t-deal-with-this moment. I’m sure it’s great, I just don’t like it. Case closed.
• Geany is definitely…bigger than gedit, and it’s written with an eye to programming, not text editing. As such:
• Geany: When you open a new document, it has a nifty GPL license already put in.
• Geany: It has the all-powerful ‘Execute’ button, which is definitely faster than executing it with the Terminal.
• Geany: I’m not quite sure how sound the ‘Execute’ button is, it seemed a bit buggy to me, but that may just be a hallucination.
• Geany: When you type an if/while/for/etc., it’ll automatically indent. Which is kind of cool.
• Geany: Speaking about those, it has the ability to ‘fold’ ifs/whiles/comments/fors. So you can just minimize them into one line to save screen real estate. Which is also kind of cool.
• Geany: There’s variable auto-completion. So if you have variable user_input, just type in user, and a menu will show up asking if you want to autocomplete. It’s actually really intuitive.
• Geany: Wikipedia calls it ‘cross-platform’. So it runs on every major OS except for Macs.
• Both: They both have syntax highlighting.
• Both: They both have tabs.
• gedit: gedit’s lighter/faster/smaller.
• gedit: gedit has plugins (read: Stinkin’ AWESOME!!. So with plugins (easily addable from Edit=>Preferences|Plugins), some of the highlights are that you can:
• gedit: Have a Python interpreter chilling in the bottom of your screen. Which is HANDY.
• gedit: Mass indent/unindent (Nice if you add or remove an extra level of control flow)
• gedit: On the lame side, you need to have a Terminal running to execute your entire program. Though you should be executing less often with the interpreter.
• gedit: Since we’re on the lame side: It only runs in ‘Unix-like systems’. Sorry, Windows people! (I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of workaround, though that’s outside of the scope of this post)

Conclusions:

Don’t use IDLE (haha, just kidding. But I really don’t have anything else to say about it).

Use Geany if you want to feel like the editor knows what you’re thinking (variable autocompletion, auto-indenting), or if you execute your program like crazy.

Use gedit (which I personally prefer) if you want speed, an interpreter, or handy tools (aka plugins).

Really though? They’re both great, I’ve used them both, and the easiest way of knowing is to code in both of them and make an executive decision.