If you’ve spent any time in academia or the academic publishing world, you’ve probably heard of LaTeX (pronounced “LAY-tech”).
- Latex Code Generator
- What Is A Good Latex Code Editor For Mac
- Latex
- Latex Symbols
- Latex Source Code
- What Is A Good Latex Primer
But what, exactly, is LaTeX? What are some of its uses? And how can you learn to use it?
- The best free and paid text editor programs for Mac whether you're a web developer, programmer, technical writer, or anything in between! Word processors like Microsoft Word and Apple's own Pages software are just dandy if you want to write a college paper or fax a cover sheet, but their focus is on page layout and text formatting.
- What LaTeX Editor do you suggest for Linux? [closed] Ask Question. Up vote 186 down vote favorite. Lyx is a WYSIWYG editor that uses LaTeX as a backend. Mac text/code editor. What IDE to use for Python? Text editor to open big (giant, huge, large) text files.
We’ll walk you through the basics to help you get started. Then we’ll show you where to find great LaTeX tutorials and resources and point you toward some free LaTeX software.
TeXlipse is an open source and cross-platform best LaTeX editor for Windows, Mac, Linux, and others (Java-based). It provides customizable templates, an outline view, integrated code completion, editor shortcuts, version control, etc. The sublime code editor is being actively developed and has a huge loyal community who creates plugins for. MathType is an equation editor by DesignScience the provides a GUI for bulding math equations. You can then copy and past the equation into your favorite TeX editor. Math Type will past LaTeX code. Whether you’re a developer or a writer, a good text editor is a must-have on any computer, in any operating system. The humble text editor is great for managing code, writing down quick notes. Whether you’re a seasoned programmer, or a beginner trying to code your first piece of software, a good text editor is one of the most important things you’ll need on your Mac.
What Is LaTeX?
Put simply, LaTeX is a typesetting and document preparation system that “includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation.”
But what does that mean?
For most people, it means that you can use LaTeX to create documents with text and formatting that would be difficult in a standard word processor.
Let’s use the quadratic equation as an example. Here’s what I typed in LaTeX:
And here’s how that’s displayed:
Getting that equation to display nicely in Microsoft WordHow to Write Math Equations in Office 2016How to Write Math Equations in Office 2016Need to put a math equation in a Microsoft Word document? Here's how to make sure it looks perfect, every time.Read More would be a pain. In LaTeX, it just took me a couple lines of text. But LaTeX can do a whole lot more than mathematical equations. It can handle non-Roman alphabets, tables of contents, lists, bibliographies, references, and even formulaic drawing.
Typesetting With LaTeX
If you’re writing with LaTeX, you usually don’t have to worry too much about typesetting. You’ll probably use it more for equations and the like. But by tagging the items in your document (sections, figures, titles, and so on), you give an editor or publisher the ability to apply styles and formats to the entire document at once.
The American Mathematical Society says this:
“LaTeX 2e defines ‘structured’ files in which the various elements (title, authors, headings, etc.) are easily identified. This is crucial for the future, when we may need to migrate tens of thousands of articles into new formats. AMS journals are already posted on line, with full bibliographic data in HTML.”
Formatting and typesetting with LaTeX is a bit like using HTML and CSS. If you correctly tag everything with HTML, all you need to do is make one or two changes in CSS to apply them across your entire HTML document.
Advantages of LaTeX Documents
LaTeX documents obviously have advantages for mathematicians and anyone else who uses equations in their writing. The systems is commonly used for documents in physics, statistics, computer science, engineering, and other fields that need to write down a lot of equations.
But it’s also used by linguists, economists, philosophers, children’s book authors, anthropologists, theologians… and just about anyone else you can think of.
That’s not to say that it’s for everyone, though.
If you want something that you can learn and use right away, LaTeX may not be for you. It’s a markup languageLightweight Markup Languages: This Is Why You Should Use AsciiDoc Over Regular MarkdownLightweight Markup Languages: This Is Why You Should Use AsciiDoc Over Regular MarkdownMarkdown language comes in many flavors, some of which are better than others. Lightweight languages like AsciiDoc are easy to learn and extremely useful. Here's how it compares.Read More, and it will take time to learn more than the basics. You’ll have to do a lot of research on how to solve specific problems.
That said, after you’ve learned it, it’ll save you a lot of time. Automatically generated tables of contents and bibliographies alone will save you hours. And if you design documents, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is in LaTeX than Word or LibreOffice.
LaTeX is based on the TeX document formatting system, which has been around since 1978. Some version of LaTeX will likely stick around for a long time, so it’s a great format to store documents in.
Getting Started With LaTeX
Taking a look at LaTeX basics can be intimidating. It looks like learning a new coding language. But there aren’t as many commands to learn (at least at first).
Let’s take a look at a quick example to start. I’ll use LaTeX Base, a free online LaTeX editor. I recommend using it while you’re learning.
To open the document, I’ll declare a document class:
There are many LateX document classes, but article is a common one.
After that, I’ll add the document title, the author’s name, and a date:
Now, you’ll notice that none of this information is currently displayed in my document (the preview is on the right side of the screen):
That’s because this information is considered part of the preamble, which doesn’t appear in the LaTeX document.
Want to make it show up in the document? It’s easy. Just use the following line:
That’s all there is to it:
Note that maketitle must be between the document’s beginning and ending to work.
Within the body of the document, you can type plain text to insert it:
And for a bulleted list, use the following syntax:
Here’s what it looks like in the editor:
To create a numbered list, use enumerate instead of itemize.
Let’s add a section heading to make sure readers know that this is the introduction:
With a simple declaration:
I’ve added a numbered section heading. LaTeX will automatically insert sections into a table of contents, if we want one.
As you can see, using LaTeX is straightforward—if you know the markup you need. That’s where tutorials and documentation come in.
Resources for Learning LaTeX
For the most part, learning to use LaTeX is all about finding the right information when you need it. You can start with plain text, then look up what you need for a section or sub-section heading.
Then you can find the information on how to insert a figure. Or a footnote. Or an entire bibliography. The best way to learn it is one step at a time.
To that end, here are some LaTeX resources that will help you out.
LaTeX Tutorials
One of the best introductions to LaTeX for beginners is Learn LaTeX in 30 Minutes by ShareLaTeX, an online LaTeX editor.
It goes over some of the basics that we covered above, as well as intermediate topics like mathematical equations, text formatting, comments, and figure captions.
Andy Roberts has a series of articles on LaTeX that will walk you through everything from the most basic setup all the way through figures and captions. It’s not clear if he regularly updates this, but it appears to be up-to-date at the time of this writing.
Overleaf, another free online LaTeX editor, also has a good LaTeX tutorial that will teach you the basics. They call it an “interactive” tutorial, but it’s really just a sequence of slides. That being said, it’s a comprehensive introduction to a lot of the commands you might want to try with LaTeX.
LaTeX Documentation
Whether you decide to use the above LaTeX tutorials or not, you’re going to need to reference documentation at some point.
LaTeX, an aptly titled book on Wikibooks, is a great place to start. It’s a comprehensive guide to the LaTeX system that includes everything from tables of contents to indices. Errors and warnings, algorithms, theorems, advanced mathematics, and anything else you could possibly want in LaTeX are included.
And because it’s on Wikibooks, it’s super easy to search.
The official documentation from latex-project.org is another good resource, though it’s not exactly user-friendly. The documentation is split up into different documents meant for different people in the writing, editing, and typesetting processes.
The Not So Short Guide to LaTeX 2e is exactly what it sounds like: a (very long) guide to LaTeX. And while you could use it as a tutorial, as it does cover all of the basics, the massive size of this guide makes it better as a reference.
Latex Code Generator
Finally, the guides section of ShareLaTeX is another good option. The resources there are somewhere between tutorials and references, and are great for when you have questions.
LaTeX Software
LaTeX isn’t a standalone piece of software. It runs on top of an older system called TeX. Many pieces of TeX software support LaTeX.
The official LaTeX project page recommends the following:
- MiKTeX, proTeXt, or TeX Live for Windows.
- MacTeX for Mac.
- Tex Live for for Linux.
There are also a number of LaTeX online editors that you can use without downloading any software:
- LaTeX Base (free, no account necessary)
- Overleaf (free and paid plans)
- ShareLaTeX (free and paid plans)
- Papeeria (free and paid plans)
- Authorea (free and paid plans)
Start Using LaTeX Today
With the resources, tools, tutorials, and tips above, you can get started with LaTeX right away. It takes a while to get used to it, but once you do, you’ll be creating and formatting documents much more efficiently. You could continue making professional documents in WordHow to Create Professional Reports and Documents in Microsoft WordHow to Create Professional Reports and Documents in Microsoft WordThis guide examines the elements of a professional report and reviews the structuring, styling, and finalizing of your document in Microsoft Word.Read More, but why would you after you’ve seen what LaTeX can do?
While this document is helpful, it is important to note that LaTeX is not only for authors of technical documents. Many open-source products use LaTeX behind the scenes to format documentation. For software developers, there are literate programming tools (emacs org mode is one example) that produce both program source code and latex documentation from a single input file.
Emacs (with auctex) should be included in the list of editors that support authoring LaTeX documents.
There are LaTeX packages to support authoring presentations.
If you have anything to contribute -- e.g. configurations for editors, new editors, or opinion -- don't hesitate to edit or create pages.
There's an EditorConfigurationHowto available.
Contents
Please keep wiki links as wiki links, use external links only if there is no existing page for the editor. Please add pages like BoaConstructor also to page IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments.
Multiplatform Editors
Name | Platform | Impl. Language | License | Notes |
Linux, FreeBSD | Python, GTK | GPLv3 | Embed Vim. Little brother of PIDA | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Tcl/Tk | Proprietary | Extensible in Tcl, Tk; Can interact with python. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python | MIT | Python language support for Atom-IDE, powered by the Python language server. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | C++, wxWidgets | GPLv3 | class browser does not currently work for .py files, but it's still a nice IDE to use for python projects | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | C, GTK+ | GPLv3 | The link points to the features page. | |
Linux, Windows, FreeBSD | C | GPLv3 | Cream is a free and easy-to-use configuration of the powerful and famous Vim text editor for both Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | C, GTK+ | GPLv2 | CSS editor with syntax highlighting for Python, and embeded Python interpreter. Extensible through a Python API. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | BSD | Extensible in Python; part of PythonCard. Includes PyCrust shell. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, PyQt | GPLv3 | Complete IDE, very well integrated with PyQT development, but usable for any kind of project. Supports projects, debugging, auto-complete, syntax coloring, etc. It is extensible via plug-in system. It has interfaces to Subversion and Mercurial. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary | BRIEF-compatible, supports Python syntax, in-buffer Python interpreter, supports lots of languages. Powerful macro language. | ||
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux | Tcl/Tk | Public domain | DRAKON diagram editor with code generation in Python. | |
Windows, Linux and Mac/MacPorts | Python, PyGTK | GPLv3 | Interactive shell with history box and code box, auto-completion of attributes and file names, auto-display of function arguments and documentation. Keeps your recent results, provides session history saving (optionally in HTML), interactive plotting with matplotlib. Extremely fast and responsive. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | GPL | Simple, Highly Customizable Editor/Environment. A Tribute to DrScheme. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Java | EPL | Eclipse is ... an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular.' Support for Python can be obtained via the PyDEV plugin. | |
Linux, Windows | Proprietary | Built-in Python syntax highlighting, Python class browsing, Python-compatible regular expressions, code folding, and extensive options for running external tools such as Python scripts. | ||
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | wxWindows | A general purpose developer's text editor written in Python/wxPython. It supports python syntax highlighting, auto-ident, auto-completion, classbrowser, and can run scripts from inside the editor. Extensible with plugins written in python. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS | C, Lisp | GPLv3 | Python support with EmacsPythonMode. Extensible in Python using pymacs | |
Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and OS/2 | Proprietary | Customizable Python mode, syntax coloring, function tagging. | ||
Linux, Windows, Mac OS | Python, PyQt4 | GPLv3 | Extensible editor written in Python, Python/C/Nim code tree browser, 3-window editing, text diff, multi-language support, Python REPL, manipulate editor text with Python code | |
Unix/X, Windows, DOS, OS/2 | C++ | GPL | Supports lots of languages, including Python; doesn't seem programmable | |
Unix/X, Windows | C, GTK+ | GPLv2 | A small and lightweight GTK+ IDE that supports lots of languages, including Python. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS | C, Python | GPLv2 | gedit is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment, with Python syntax highlighting. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS | Python, PyQt | Proprietary | Ideas is a feature rich IDE that supports debugging, interpreting and project management. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | Java | GPLv2 | syntax coloring for python, extensible with jython, supports many file formats, has folding, fully customisable, has sidebar for class and functions, fast for a Java application | |
Unix, Windows, Mac OS | Java | GPLv3 | IDE with Jython Shell. Syntax coloring for python, extensible with jython, supports many file formats, fully customisable, has sidebar for class and functions | |
Unix, Windows | C | GPLv2 | Supports Python syntax and a Python-specific menu. | |
Unix, VMS, MSDOS, OS/2, BeOS, QNX, and Windows. | C | GPLv2 | Syntax highlighting and indenting, (optional) emacs keybindings, programmable with s-lang. Note: comment out 'msw_help(...' line in pymode.sl if you are having problems on Windows. | |
Unix, Windows, Mac OS | Java | GPLv2 | Has three plugins - one for Jython and one for Python/Jython JpyDbg - interactive editing debugging, code browsing, highlighting. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS | Java, Python | GPL | NetbeansjEdit cross IDE plugin | |
Unix/OSX/Cygwin/Interix (curses), MS-DOS (DR DOS, FreeDOS, Win, OS/2 DOS-Box) | C | GPL | Versatile WordStar-like editor (JOE fork) with many colourised syntax-highlighting modes | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS | C++ | GPLv2 | Kde main developping app. Code folding, syntax highlighting, navigator. projects, class browser, version control, customizable keybindings. Comes also with some typical python project models: pyton Qt app, Tkinter app and simple script. | |
Unix, Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary | Komodo is an award winning Python IDE from ActiveState. Fully-integrated Python Python 2.x and Python 3 support featuring code intelligence with autocomplete and calltips, Python debugger (includes remote debugging), interactive shell, remote file support, macros, templating, emacs command support and great help documentation. There is also an open-source version called Komodo Edit (Source), as part of the Open Komodo project started November 2007. | ||
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary/Open Source | scaled-down version of Komodo IDE which also supports Python, but excludes the integrated debugger. | ||
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | GPLv3 | Python IDE with focus is on simplicity and ease of use. It is fast and lightweight. It features Python indentation, line numbers, code folding, syntax highlighting, shell access, code completion, a program runner, a source browser, indentation guides, a white space indicator, autosaving, an edge line, multiple tabs, printing, jumping to a specific line, word searching, word replacement, zooming undo/redo, pastebin.com code submission, Python syntax checking, the ability to change the indentation of many lines at once, autocompletiton, and bad brace checking. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, PyQt | MIT | Outlining editor, fully scriptable and extensible, supporting literate programming. 100% pure Python code. | |
Unix, Windows | C, GTK+ | LGPL | Gtk editor with python bindings, allows plugins written in python. | |
Linux, Windows | C | GNU GPL | Small, terminal-based editor, Syntax highlighting | |
Unix, Windows, Mac OS X | C | GPLv3 | Easy to use, small, powerful, fast, terminal-based editor. Supports UTF-8, syntax highlighting, undo, autocomplete, macros, regexes, bookmarks. v2.4 released 2012-04 | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | C | GPLv2 | X-Based, Python support builtin. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X, others | Java | GPLv2 | Netbeans is an open extensible cross platform IDE ; Support for Python can be obtained via the JpyDbg plugin. A new plugin exists for Netbeans 6.5 or newer - info. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS | Python, PyQt4 | GPLv3 | Lightweight and extensible editor. Class browser, project manager, PEP8 finder, virtualenv, plugin support | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | GPLv2 | wxPython based editor. Can be easily extended with mixins and plugins, and has many features. Seems to be biased towards Python web development as contains FTP GUI, RSS aggregator and HTML preview. | |
Windows NT, Linux (with GTK+ 2) | C++, wxWidgets | Freeware | Easy to use text editor with syntax highlighting for Python. Embeds the Python interpreter to extend functionality of the application | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | Java | Apache 2.0 | Full-featured IDE for Python. Has Free and Open Source edition fully supporting Python as well as proprietary Professional Edition with Django, Flask, Pyramid and Google App Engine support. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | Java, Eclipse | EPL | Eclipse plugin. Code-completion. Debugger. Under active development. (ShowMeDo Videos) | |
Linux, Windows | Python, Tk | GPLv3 | Ultra-lightweight Python/text editor made in Python with Tk. Emphasis on easy customization and no-bloat attitude. | |
Unix, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | GPLv2 | Written in Python - code folding, snippets, unicode, multiple documents, code completion, several languages, macros. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | MIT | Free open-source extension for Visual Studio Code. Supports syntax highlighting, debugging, code completion, code navigation, refactoring, with support for Django, multi threaded, local and remote debugging. | ||
Windows/Linux/Mac (wxPython) | Python | GPLv3 | An interactive environment for python features include: Multiple independent python interpreters. Interactively program with different GUI toolkits (wxPython, TkInter, pyGTK, pyQT4 and PySide). Matlab style namespace/workspace browser. Object auto-completions, calltips and multi-line command editing in the console. Object inspection and python path management. Simple code editor and integrated debugger. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Python, PySide | BSD License | Open-source Python IDE focused on interactivity and introspection, which makes it very suitable for scientific computing. Its practical design is aimed at simplicity and efficiency. Pyzo consists of two main components, the editor and the shell, and uses a set of pluggable tools to help the programmer in various ways: e.g. source structure, interactive help, workspace, file browser (with functionality for searching). Also includes a post-mortem debugger. | |
SciTE | Windows, Linux (GTK+) | C++ | MIT-Like | A highly configurable light-weight source code editor (about 50 file formats) based on widely-used Scintilla rich text widget/control. Features: sytax highlighting, code folding, auto-indent, brace matching, codepage/unicode support, multiple documents, context help, code execution, output pane, external tools support, RegExp find/replace, text export (HTML, RTF, PDF, LaTeX, XML). Python API for calltips and autocompletion available. |
Windows, Linux, Mac OS X | Python, wxPython | GPLv3 | Stani's Python Editor. Auto indentation, auto completion, call tips, syntax coloring/highlighting, UML viewer, class explorer, source index, auto todo list, sticky notes, integrated PyCrust shell, Python file browser, recent file browser, drag&drop, context help. Blender support with a Blender 3D object browser, runs interactively inside Blender. Ships with WxGlade (GUI designer), PyChecker (source code doctor) and Kiki (regular expression console). Extensible with WxGlade. (ShowMeDo Videos) | |
Windows, Linux, macOS | Python, PyQt5 | MIT | Spyder is a powerful scientific environment written in Python, for Python,and designed by and for scientists, engineers and data analysts. It features a unique combination of the advanced editing, analysis, debugging and profiling functionality of a comprehensive development tool with the data exploration, interactive execution, deep inspection and beautiful visualization capabilities of a scientific package. Furthermore, Spyder offers built-in integration with many popular scientific packages, including NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, IPython, QtConsole, Matplotlib, SymPy, and more. Beyond its many built-in features, Spyder's abilities can be extended even further via first- and third-party plugins. It is conveniently integrated in the cross-platform Anaconda distribution, and is the centerpiece of the Python(x,y) and WinPython distributions for Windows. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary | Syntax coloring, popup function arguments, class hierarchy browser, graphical debugger, and other nice Python features. Context tagging with class/module namespaces, code navigation, and smart indenting are also supported. | ||
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | C++, Python | Proprietary | Beautiful interface, Python syntax highlighting, Python plugins. | |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS X | Python | MIT | For teaching/learning programming. Focused on program runtime visualization. Provides stepping both in statements and expressions, no-hassle variables view, separate mode for explaining references etc. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS | C | Charityware | Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. Syntax coloring, indenting, autocompletion, and source-navigation tools for Python. Can be scripted in Python. See also Cream. | |
Unix/X, Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary | Powerful commercial IDE designed specifically for Python. Auto-completion, call tips, syntax highlighting, goto-definition, keyboard modes for emulating Visual Studio, VI/Vim, Emacs, & Brief, graphical debugger, code browser, integrated shell, scriptable in Python, and much more. (ShowMeDo Videos) | ||
Linux, Windows | Python, wxPython | GPL | Simple text editor written in python. Syntax highlighter, Code fold, Export code in HTML... |
Unix-Only Editors
What Is A Good Latex Code Editor For Mac
Name | Platform | FreeSoftware? | ZeroPrice? | Notes |
Unix + GTK | X | Supports debugging Python, Tcl, Ruby, Perl, Lua scripts. Code intelligence (Code completion, folding, auto-complete, code snippets, syntax highlighting matching tags, show keyword or variable information when mouse over...). Keyword help and improved script document. Integrated commonly-used scripting libraries (Tk, wxPython, Pygame, Pmw, Numeric...). Supports compiling python scripts to Windows EXE files. |
Windows-Only Editors
Name | Platform | Impl. Language | License | Notes |
Windows | C++ | GPL | Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License. Based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment. | |
Windows | Pascal/Delphi | MIT | Free and open-source Python IDE created with the ambition to become competitive in functionality with commercial Windows-based IDEs |
Macintosh-Only Editors
Name | Platform | Notes |
Mac OS | Python-mode extensible in Tcl | |
Mac OS X 10.4 or later | Full-featured text editor; includes Python support. TextWrangler is the free version (see below). | |
Mac OS X 10.7 or later | General purpose editor with autocompletion for the Python standard library, plus inline documentation. | |
Mac OS X 10.4 or later | 'text editor + file transfer + svn + css + terminal + books + more = whoah. welcome to coda. grow beautiful code.' | |
Mac OS X (Cocoa) | Programmer's text editor with Python syntax highlighting. Written in Python with PyObjC. Open-source (GPL). | |
OS X (Cocoa) | Fork of Smultron. No longer under development | |
Mac OS | Included in MacPython distribution. | |
Mac OS 68k Mac OS 9 Mac OS X | Does not initially include Python support but new language modes can be created. One available here Mi_Python | |
Mac OS X | Python syntax coloring. Allow multiple author to edit the same file collaborativelly over the network using 'Bonjour' (previously Rendezvous). | |
Mac OS X 10.4 or later | Free and full-featured text editor based on BBEdit. Includes Python syntax highlighting. | |
Mac OS X | Free IDE and text editor. Includes Python syntax coloring. | |
Mac OS X 10.3.9+ | Great Cocoa editor with Python support including syntax coloring, integrated documentation, and a runtime wrapper with hyperlinked tracebacks. Note that code-folding of classes is currently broken for PEP 8 compliant code. | |
Mac OS X 10.6 or later | Again under active development, support for Python syntax coloring. Only available in the Mac App Store. | |
Mac OS X 10.3 or later | Free OS X based IDE for the Python (and other) programming language (replaces discontinued PyOXIDE), with syntax coloring, completion, tool tips, source level debugger, help browser, etc... | |
Mac OS X 10.6 or later | Free text editor, with Python syntax highlighting. A paid pro version with more features is also available. |
Online Editors
Name | Notes |
A general web-based IDE with support for Python. Provides a full Ubuntu environment with Python 2.7.6, and support for Django workspaces. | |
An interactive Python IDE for data exploration and visualization. Provides a full online Anaconda-based Python environment, with real-time collaboration, interactive IPython sessions, and easy publishing of output figures and code. Includes syntax highlighting and autocomplete. The service was shut down on 2nd Jan 2017 | |
'Host, run, and code Python in the cloud!' Free and paid plans include access to multiple versions of CPython, PyPy, IPython notebooks, a large selection of third-party modules, bash and MySQL shells, and more. | |
An online IDE for numerical and data science computing experiments - includes: real-time collaboration, a customizable editor, a console and much more. The basic account is free of charge. | |
A collection of computational mathematics tools in the cloud, including IPython notebooks, SageMath, Numpy/Scipy/Matplotlib, and Cython. | |
Continuum Analytics' (distributors of the Anaconda Python distribution) hosted data analysis environment. Includes IPython notebooks, data visualization methods like matplotlib and bokeh, ability to add AWS nodes and clusters, command-line shells, file storage, SSH access, and other elements. (Some features require paid account) |
Glorified Editors
'IDEs' that don't integrate anything Python-specific go here.
Name | Platform | Notes |
Unix + GNOME | Cross-language IDE; syntax coloring & folding for Python. | |
Linux x86 | Commercial IDE with support to 30 other languages. | |
Unix | Commercial cross-language IDE; nice multi-user project manager. | |
Windows | Cross-language IDE with integrated SQL support and automation features (currently German only GUI) | |
Python + wxPython | Simple, Highly Customizable Editor/Environment. A Tribute to DrScheme. | |
Java + Jython + Python | An OpenSource IDE for Python, Jython, and Java. Supports Syntax highlighting, Code Completion and many more. Developed in Java. | |
Python + Tkinter + Tix | An extended version of IDLE using Tix. | |
Java | Java IDE with Python support through Pythonid plugin - includes code completion, syntax & error highlighting, intra-file refactoring | |
Unix + KDE | Cross-language IDE for KDE - supports Python syntax/projects. | |
Java | A Java IDE with an optional plugin for Jython. | |
Windows/X (Python+wxPython) | Written in Python - code folding, snippets, unicode, multiple documents, code completion, several languages, macros. | |
Windows | Available either as part of ActiveState's ActivePython distribution (which is not open source) or as part of the Win32All extensions from Mark's pages (which is open source). | |
Unix/Windows/Mac | rope is a python IDE aimed at providing a rich set of software refactorings. | |
Unix/Windows with Tcl/Tk | Cross-language IDE & Source code analysis tool. | |
Eclipse | Python and PHP IDE; available in commercial Professional and open-source Foundation versions | |
Windows | GUI designer for wxPython. | |
Linux/Windows/Mac | Full featured, free IDE bundled with wxPython, features projects, scintilla, and debugging | |
Unix/Windows/Mac | Non-free Cross-language GUI dialog designer with integrated support for editing your Python callback functions. | |
Unix/Windows/Mac | A 'designer' for WxPython (requires wxPython) | |
Unix/Windows/Mac | Multi-language editor that support python autocomplete, Direcotry/class browser, tags/multi-views editing, unicode, and Django wizard(requires wxPython) | |
Python Tkinter | GUI, class browser, file manager, with code completion. Licensed under the GPL. |
Enhanced Python shells
Name | Platform | Notes |
Python + PyCrust | Interactive Python shell included in wxPython. | |
Python + PySlices | New 'notebook' version of PyCrust with save/load features and the ability to run blocks of code in separate 'slices'. | |
Unix, Mac OS X, Windows | Enhanced interactive Python shell. Also usable as pythonic system shell (bash/cmd.exe) replacement. Supports autocompletion. Inline syntax highlighting. (ShowMeDo Videos) | |
Java, at least 1.4 | Interactive, embeddable Jython shell with code completion. Licensed under the QPL. | |
win32 | Interactive python shell using wxPython. py script and exe for win. Data plotting capability from within the shell. Free. | |
KDE | An interactive Python shell using PyKDE and a KHTMLPart (for HTML rendering). | |
Python 2.3 (or higher) and PyQt | An interactive Python shell using PyQt. | |
Unix, Mac OS X | Interactive shell with highlighting and autocomplete. | |
Latex
Mobile Device Editors
'IDEs' that run on mobile devices and tablets.
Latex Symbols
Name | Platform | Notes |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | Universal iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) IDE. | |
iOS | IDE for iPad | |
iOS | A Python Interpreter focused on math modules | |
iOS | IDE for iOS with native graphic and sound support through high-level API; games and interactive demos included | |
iOS | IDE for iPhone and iPad with Python 3 support. Custom library is supported. See Python Box page for details. |
Other Resources
Vaults of Parnassus Editor/IDE page.
Open Directory Project's Python Tools page.
PySmell provides autocompletion for Vim, Emacs and TextMate
Never ending debate
Latex Source Code
EmacsVsVi
What Is A Good Latex Primer
CategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditorsCategoryEditors