Django using Eclipse IDE and Pydev

I’ve been using Wingwares python IDE for Django development for almost 2 years. The Wingware IDE has been very good but I have had a few superficial annoyances with it so decided to look around and see what other IDE’s I could use. This led me to Eclipse. The first time I had a look around for Django IDE’s I remember looking at Eclipse but I think I recall difficulties when trying to run Django projects. Eclipse doesn’t natively support Django, you have to install Pydev to get that. After revisiting Eclipse and Pydev I can safely say I’ve switched from Wingware to Eclipse for Django development. The Eclipse IDE in itself is very good and full of useful development features. The Pydev plugin for it which allows python and Django development is also fantastic as it has a GUI for creating and managing Django specific python projects. Another great feature of Eclipse is it’s free price tag where as a single developer license for Wingware is $179 (roughly £115).

To get my Eclipse set up for Django I installed the following:

1. Eclipse Classic 3.6.0
2. Pydev

Then I read through and followed a few guides to understand Pydev and Django support:

1. Pydev getting started guide
2. Pydev Django integration guide

In less than an hour I was up and running and fully understood how to start and develop Django projects in Eclipse. I’d even moved 3 existing Django projects into Eclipse in that time.

Sorry Wingware, you’ve been good to me but I’m trying Eclipse for a while and I don’t think I’m coming back.

This entry was posted on July 24, 2010 at July 24, 2010 and is filed under Django, Productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.