Posted by Graeme in Software at 5:01 pm on Thursday, 23 April 2015

Continuing my review of a number of Python IDEs, I am starting with two IDEs I already know I like: Komodo and Ninja. As I said in the first post before I have used both Komodo Edit (Komodo IDE is Komodo Edit with extra features).I used both on a few things including a Django project, and an XML parsing script (using ElementTree). Komodo really shone on the HTML and Javascript editing. One disappointment was that navigating around a large XML file was not as easy as in Geany which shows CSS selectors in the code tree. Komodo just shows a blank. Its syntax checking for both HTML and CSS failed to detect several deliberate errors. On the other hand its Javascript syntax checking is outstanding and its auto-completion for for HTML, JS and CSS is good.

Ninja has very little support for web development apart from syntax colouring for Django tags. Even the browser preview just opens the file in the browsers, whereas both Komodo and Geany (with an extension) can open a preview URL.

Moving on to Python, I cannot decide whether Ninja or Komodo has better completion. Ninja correctly completes attributes (like .objects) or Django models imported into views, which Komodo does not. Komodo deals correctly with ElementTree imported as etree, which Ninja does not. Ninja fails to complete imported objects, but the Kai plugin fixes this After two days of side by side use, neither is obviously better, so its near enough a draw,

Komodo has calltips, Ninja does not. Komodo detects files changed on disk, Ninja does not. Ninja lints for Python 2 to 3 issues and suggests fixes that can be applied with a click, making it very easy to wrote Python 3 compatible Python 2, Komodo does not. Komodo has more plugins, Ninja has more Python specific plugins.

Komodo is heavier, using more RAM and CPU, but except for the times Komdo’s CPU usage really does up, both are fine on any reasonably modern machine – except when Komodo suddenly decides it wants to use 100% CPU.

Komodo supposedly has refactoring support, but it does not seem to do much more than Ninja’s find usages.

I also tried opening an old TCL project in Komodo. It does have code completion that works reasonably, and rather limited call tips, but it is not as good as I would have expected from a company so involved in TCL. However most TCL devs will probably by the Tcl Studio version, which has more TCL specific features, so that may be a lot better.

If I wanted a single IDE that works with multiple languages, or I did a lot of Javascript, I would probably buy Komodo. It is certainly far better than Ninja for a Django developer who does a lot of front end work

For a mostly Python developer, it is very difficult to pick a winner. On the whole I marginally prefer Ninja, and it is free and open source. I can see myself using Ninja for Python and Komdo Edit for HTML, JS and XML (I do not do enough of these to justify buying Komodo IDE).

Python IDEs part two: Ninja and Komodo

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