Python, ERIC RAD IDE and QT designer

Right, I have decided to play around a little with the most loved language of open source a. k. a. Python.

How do we do that? By coding?

Aha and how do I code for Python and be productive given I am a semi-part-time-hobbyist kinda programmer…I am heavily inclined to use an IDE…and an IDE that actually has some GUI editor…so began my search to find out what are my options in the exciting open source world.

I quickly worked out that IDE and RAD IDE are two different things. RAD IDE is what I am after and well there is nothing straight forward and best bet was to use QT with PySide or PyQT and there is an argument on each side for PyQT vs PySide.

Anyhoo, PySide is not compatible yet with QT5 and QT4.8.x is not available for download from QT official downloads. Whatever happened to providing an archive. QT itself is a world in itself with lot of modules and plugins etc and I was feeling lost.

I diverted efforts to find what else and stumbled upon ERIC IDE for Python and from here things started tying up to a point where I could logically assimilate the available information to start preparing my system for my kind of Python Development.

However, this information isn’t as readily available as it should be and most mentioned on trusty old Internet Google search is combination of PySide and the non existent QT4 which had it not been for Linux package managers, might as well be a lost cause.

All it involves is downloading Eric from repository which satisfied most of the dependencies and then I downloaded qt4 designer and included qt4 creator just for good measure.

So there now we have the tool and all I need is setting it up and getting started.

Following links will come handy I suppose.

http://eric-ide.python-projects.org/tutorials/MiniBrowser/

http://anh.cs.luc.edu/python/hands-on/handsonHtml/handson.html#x1-310001.9.3

Here’s to some exciting learning experience.