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I'm coming from Ruby / Ruby on Rails to Python. Where can I find or find resources about:

  • The command prompt, what is python's version of 'irb'
  • info and recommendations on editors, plugins and IDE's
  • testing, what's available, anything similar to rspec?

[Note - I've scaled down my original wish list of 15 or so items to the above 3 based on feedback below. and the negative votes :) ]

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I'm missing the 'and I want a pony' item in your list though. Anything else you wanted to ask? -- Asking this many questions in one post makes for an impossible task for any answer to be deserving of votes. No-one could cover all these angles properly, making this post decidedly non-constructive. – Martijn Pieters Nov 22 '12 at 18:15
These are typical questions that someone coming from ruby on rails has. Peter's answer below shows the question to be answerable. – Michael Durrant Nov 23 '12 at 16:35
I didn't say it was not answerable. I stated that it is impossible to answer everything in a way that makes one answer more deserving of an upvote over another. Split out your questions to fit the Q/A format of the site, don't lump them together in one big clump, at the very least. – Martijn Pieters Nov 23 '12 at 16:37
Sure, that's a little more of a practical answer. I will see what I can do in that fashion. Thanks. – Michael Durrant Dec 10 '12 at 15:40

closed as not a real question by gnat, BЈовић, Walter, thorsten müller, Yannis Rizos♦ Nov 22 '12 at 18:44

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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Welcome to Python-land!

  • The command prompt, what is python's version of 'irb'. If you just run python you'll get a prompt. It's OK, but I have recently discovered IPython and it's way better for playing around and trying out ideas. See the PyCon 2012 presentation for a high-speed tour of IPython.
  • django, what is a good resource for installing, using, etc. The Django Documentation sets the Gold Standard for what docs should be.
  • pythoncasts... is there anything like railscats, i.e. good video tutorials. That would be PyVideo.org.
  • web sites with the api Not sure what you're asking for here ...
  • info about what version have what and which to use. That's simple: either 2.7.3 (or the latest 2.x) or 3.x. You'll find that almost everything will work with 2.x, but 3.x is gaining a lot of steam and already has many of the 3.x features available.
  • info and recommendations on editors, plugins and IDE's. I know there's an Eclipse plugin, but I'm a Certified Old Fart, so I use vim.
  • common gotchas for newbies and good things to know at the outset. The number one thing is to not get too hung up about The White Space Thing™. After about an hour you'll hardly even notice it. Be careful about using [] as a default in procedure definitions (it doesn't do exactly what you think), and watch out for tuples with only one value, e.g. (foo,) is a tuple, but (foo) is a parenthesized expression with the value foo -- not the same thing. There are a few other things, but it's a pretty gotcha-free language.
  • scaling issues, common reasons Scaling is highly dependent on what you are trying to do.
  • what is the equivalent of 'gems', i.e. components I can plug in. Python Eggs may be the closest. See the PyPi site (Python Package Index) for tons of stuff.
  • what are popular plugins for django authentication and forms similar to devise and simple_form. Start with the Django Docs. There are a large number of django apps for things like OAuth, etc. You'll just have to look around.
  • testing, what's available, anything similar to rspec? Don't know rspec. There are several python-based testing frameworks. GIYF.
  • database adapters - any preferences? Outside of a framework with it's own ORM (e.g. Django) SQLAlchemy is one of the leading contenders.
  • framework info - is django MVC like rails? They call it MVT Model-View-Template, but it's pretty similar. There is a pattern called Naked Objects, and the Django ORM + Admin + Forms does a pretty good job of implementing it.
  • OO'yness. Is everything an object that gets send messages? Different paradign? Python supports deep OO stuff. The Django ORM is a Master's Class in metaclass hacking. But you can still do procedural programming, if you like.
  • syntax - anything like jslint for checking for well-formed code? I haven't used it, PyLint exists.
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"web sites with the API" probably means the standard library docs, ie Python 2.7 or Python 3. – detly Nov 22 '12 at 6:07
Editors I commonly use: Eclipse with PyDev and Komodo Edit. There's an IDE bundled in to each release called IDLE, but I never use it :P – detly Nov 22 '12 at 6:11

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