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Spyder is great. More minimalist than Pycharm, but it actually allows you to run multiple Python consoles in parallel, which is strangely absent from Pycharm.

ehsankia 6y ago
I generally find it really hard to use full on IDEs like PyCharm for doing more investigative/research kinda work in Python, which is where Jupyter/Colab/Spyder are great at. It's just a very different flow, creating a large application versus doing analysis/research.
- jonnycomputer 6y ago
  Pycharm Professional edition has a Scientific project type, which I was hoping someone has experience with.
- alexchantavy 6y ago
  I like to do a bit of a mix: write the library functions in Pycharm, then import and call them in Jupyter Lab. I used to try to do implementation too in Jupyter Lab but that got messy very quickly.
- _coveredInBees 6y ago
  Personally, I can't stand Jupyter for research because the introspection capabilities are so poor and limited compared to working in something like Spyder, Pycharm or VsCode. Moreover, I much prefer having interactive matplotlib plots for data exploration in a Qt/Gtk window rather than the inline matplotlib plots in Jupyter (though you can sometimes get it work to pop up windows for plots, but you still have a more interactive plotting experience in Pycharm/Spyder/VsCode) As someone who loves Spyder and used it a lot many years back, I've had no trouble doing all my scientific/algorithm prototyping in Pycharm while benefiting immensely from the astoundingly superior code intelligence/auto-complete/type-hinting in Pycharm. There is also a "Code Cell" plugin you can download for Pycharm that basically gets you to parity with Code-cells in Spyder/Matlab. For me, the excellent Python shell in Pycharm that supports multiline copy-paste, tab completion, and function-signature overlays makes prototyping algorithms and ideas much faster. That paired with the excellent history browser in Pycharm lets me easily grab relevant bits of code and promote them into a script or function and go from there. And then if you are trying to debug any algorithm, Pycharm is far superior on that front and I am far more efficient at debugging and fixing problems in Pycharm than in something like Vscode (though I do recall Spyder's debugger being pretty decent since it supports integration with IPython) There is a steep learning curve with Pycharm initially, but imo it works just fine (and for me at least, much better) in comparison to other things like Spyder/Jupyter. I would definitely recommend Spyder to most non-software engineer Python users, especially if they are in Data science. Nothing by <3 for Spyder's awesome data viewer widgets.
  - lytefm 6y ago
    > Personally, I can't stand Jupyter for research because the introspection capabilities are so poor and limited compared definetely agree. I prefer to work with code cells and prefer Spyder for being less bloated and more responsive than Pycharm, for having multiple iPython consoles and a nicer Plot window when doing DS work, though. To me, PyCharms only shines when refactoring and testing code to make it production ready.
jonnycomputer 6y ago
In fact you can do this, at least in the Professional edition of Pycharm. How to do it isn't especially obvious though. On the left hand side of your python console with be a +. Click that and it will give you a new one.
_coveredInBees 6y ago
I may be misunderstanding, but Pycharm has supported multiple Python consoles (and running multiple files) for a while now.

ehsankia 6y ago

I generally find it really hard to use full on IDEs like PyCharm for doing more investigative/research kinda work in Python, which is where Jupyter/Colab/Spyder are great at. It's just a very different flow, creating a large application versus doing analysis/research.

jonnycomputer 6y ago
Pycharm Professional edition has a Scientific project type, which I was hoping someone has experience with.
alexchantavy 6y ago
I like to do a bit of a mix: write the library functions in Pycharm, then import and call them in Jupyter Lab. I used to try to do implementation too in Jupyter Lab but that got messy very quickly.
_coveredInBees 6y ago
Personally, I can't stand Jupyter for research because the introspection capabilities are so poor and limited compared to working in something like Spyder, Pycharm or VsCode. Moreover, I much prefer having interactive matplotlib plots for data exploration in a Qt/Gtk window rather than the inline matplotlib plots in Jupyter (though you can sometimes get it work to pop up windows for plots, but you still have a more interactive plotting experience in Pycharm/Spyder/VsCode) As someone who loves Spyder and used it a lot many years back, I've had no trouble doing all my scientific/algorithm prototyping in Pycharm while benefiting immensely from the astoundingly superior code intelligence/auto-complete/type-hinting in Pycharm. There is also a "Code Cell" plugin you can download for Pycharm that basically gets you to parity with Code-cells in Spyder/Matlab. For me, the excellent Python shell in Pycharm that supports multiline copy-paste, tab completion, and function-signature overlays makes prototyping algorithms and ideas much faster. That paired with the excellent history browser in Pycharm lets me easily grab relevant bits of code and promote them into a script or function and go from there. And then if you are trying to debug any algorithm, Pycharm is far superior on that front and I am far more efficient at debugging and fixing problems in Pycharm than in something like Vscode (though I do recall Spyder's debugger being pretty decent since it supports integration with IPython) There is a steep learning curve with Pycharm initially, but imo it works just fine (and for me at least, much better) in comparison to other things like Spyder/Jupyter. I would definitely recommend Spyder to most non-software engineer Python users, especially if they are in Data science. Nothing by <3 for Spyder's awesome data viewer widgets.
- lytefm 6y ago
  > Personally, I can't stand Jupyter for research because the introspection capabilities are so poor and limited compared definetely agree. I prefer to work with code cells and prefer Spyder for being less bloated and more responsive than Pycharm, for having multiple iPython consoles and a nicer Plot window when doing DS work, though. To me, PyCharms only shines when refactoring and testing code to make it production ready.

jonnycomputer 6y ago

In fact you can do this, at least in the Professional edition of Pycharm. How to do it isn't especially obvious though. On the left hand side of your python console with be a +. Click that and it will give you a new one.

_coveredInBees 6y ago

I may be misunderstanding, but Pycharm has supported multiple Python consoles (and running multiple files) for a while now.