[HN Gopher] Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE
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       Thonny: A hassle-free Python micro-IDE
        
       Author : nine_k
       Score  : 150 points
       Date   : 2021-01-07 17:29 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thonny.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thonny.org)
        
       | protonfish wrote:
       | Why is everything an IDE? I don't want an integrated development
       | environment - I want a modular one. And as one of those modules,
       | I would love a simple, lightweight code editor. UTF-8 only, auto-
       | indent, a file list column, a good find-in-page feature, and file
       | type dependent syntax highlighting and multi-line comment key.
       | That's all I need. It seems I am always stuck between bloated
       | IDEs (or bloated text editors like VSCode and Atom) or painfully
       | low-featured ones like notepad or nano.
        
         | jerf wrote:
         | You seem to be spec'ing either vim or emacs, there.
        
           | protonfish wrote:
           | Sorry, I guess I didn't know I had to include "and without a
           | completely unnecessary non-standard interface that requires a
           | massive learning curve to get started." as a feature.
        
         | bird_monster wrote:
         | Seems like you want vim or emacs?
         | 
         | Why is more tools a problem?
        
         | jjice wrote:
         | There are plenty of mid-level editors out there. Sounds like
         | Notepad++ and Sublime Text are up you alley.
         | 
         | Also, it depends what you mean by bloated, but VS Code can be
         | stripped down to work just like the two I listed above.
         | Language servers aren't required by any means. If you're
         | looking for sub 50MB ram usage, then stick to the two above and
         | search for "Sublime Text alternative" and I'm sure you'll find
         | more equivalents than you ever wanted.
        
           | protonfish wrote:
           | I've used Notepad++ and Sublime Text and like them a lot, but
           | I could really use something that can run on a Raspberry Pi
           | too. I guess I should have included that. Being able to use a
           | single text editor across platforms would be terrific.
           | 
           | I prefer Atom.io over VSCode for simplicity. It's much closer
           | to working the way I want out-of-the-box. There's so much
           | junk I have to disable in VSCode to get it where I like.
        
             | Avshalom wrote:
             | https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | and old book about unix describes it as such.
         | 
         | each individual program is its own module, fs to link them
         | (files or pipe)
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | madhadron wrote:
         | gEdit? Kate? jEdit? One of those might fit your needs.
        
         | valec wrote:
         | I would recommend micro editor then (https://micro-
         | editor.github.io/). It's like a souped-up and much nicer to use
         | nano. It supports syntax-highlighting out of the box, auto-
         | indents, etc. I think you might like it :)
        
         | disconcision wrote:
         | Do you feel most beginners would agree with you?
        
       | djrobstep wrote:
       | It's so irritating that good clear visualization and minimal
       | boilerplate is considered "for beginners". These features should
       | be available in every programming environment.
        
       | throwawaybutwhy wrote:
       | A neat teaching environment with visual AST walkthroughs. Having
       | inspection/reflection facilities built into the standard library
       | of a programming language is a boon we rarely appreciate.
        
       | Naac wrote:
       | The debugger looks neat. Would be nice to have the same micro-IDE
       | for Go, Rust, Ruby, etc. Something like the Jetbrains tools, but
       | open source.
        
         | eitland wrote:
         | Fun fact: the core of Jetbrains IntelliJ is a very capable
         | real, extensible open source IDE that they've released
         | themselves.
         | 
         | I suspect (but I'm not sure) that the rest of their desktop
         | products are built on top of that.
        
           | muad_kyrlach wrote:
           | Sounds a lot like eclipse of yore...
        
             | eitland wrote:
             | Also true.
        
       | rcoder wrote:
       | One thing I haven't seen mentioned here yet: Thonny explicitly
       | supports Micropython for embedded systems development:
       | https://github.com/thonny/thonny/wiki/MicroPython
       | 
       | IME Thonny is a great sketchpad for Micropython ideas, and makes
       | work on that platform nearly as easy as locally-run Python code.
        
         | VectorLock wrote:
         | Solid push into Arduino IDE territory as well.
        
       | thom wrote:
       | I've used this in the past with my son to teach him simple stuff.
       | Would be nice if it somehow had integrated docs though, at which
       | point it would be roughly up to speed with QuickBasic in the 80s.
        
         | codetrotter wrote:
         | I see that Thonny has the Python shell built into it.
         | 
         | You can use the help function to see some information about
         | things.
         | 
         | For example:                   help(list)
         | 
         | Of course all of the help that you get that way is only useful
         | if you already know the concepts you need and the names of
         | things. It's not like a tutorial or a guide or anything. But
         | still, if you find yourself forgetting some detail about
         | something it can be a way of finding the information you need.
        
       | nyellin wrote:
       | I would love to see someone change the tiny debugger icons for
       | actions like "pause" and "next step" to giant, obvious, text only
       | buttons with a clear and colorful call to action. They're the
       | most important buttons on the IDE for beginners and they're the
       | least obvious. Also, make breakpoints discoverable if you don't
       | know that they're possible.
        
       | joshlk wrote:
       | Looks similar to Spyder: https://www.spyder-ide.org/
        
       | bertobully wrote:
       | I've used this in the past. Excellent learning environment.
        
       | mahathu wrote:
       | Just by the screenshot, does this remind anyone else of R Studio?
       | 
       | I'm a psychology major and working as a "student tutor", which in
       | my case means helping lower year students work with R for
       | statistical analysis. A lot of them are struggling, but for the
       | ones that aren't and show further interest beyond R, I might
       | recommend this IDE after looking into it more!
        
         | Adisuki wrote:
         | Didn't use RStudio for a while, but I find Spyter to be more
         | similar.
        
       | kodeninja wrote:
       | Built on Eclipse, or just leveraging the LAF?
        
         | andrewshadura wrote:
         | No, it's actually Tk.
        
       | comprev wrote:
       | Thonny is included by default in the Raspberry Pi OS
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | F00Fbug wrote:
       | I recommend this to my students frequently. I teach an intro to
       | programming class to college students who have no experience.
       | Inevitably, some try to use PyCharm and they just get lost in it!
       | I tell them it's like learning to drive in an 18 wheeler with a
       | manual transmission. Thonny is very much the Toyota Corolla of
       | IDEs and it's perfect for beginners.
       | 
       | The debugger and variable pane really help beginners figure out
       | what's going as their program runs.
        
       | agumonkey wrote:
       | Seems brilliantly simple yet featured.
        
       | muad_kyrlach wrote:
       | No disrespect intended, but why is this needed? VScode is free,
       | cross-platform, extremely easy to use, and you can run jupyter
       | notebooks in it. I can't imagine telling someone to start python
       | and not starting them in a notebook.
        
       | lrossi wrote:
       | I like it. Less distracting than an IDE for beginners.
       | 
       | The GUI is based on tkinter. It looks surprisingly good.
        
       | zython wrote:
       | Who is this made for ? I'm not hating but genuinely curious.
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-07 23:00 UTC)