JetBrains Strikes Python Developers with PyCharm 1.0 IDE

JetBrains has delivered a new language-specific integrated development environment for Python and Django developers, known as PyCharm 1.0.

JetBrains, the maker of productivity-enhancing development tools such as IntelliJ IDEA, adds a new language-specific IDE to its family of lightweight language-specific IDEs that JetBrains started delivering in 2008 with RubyMine, a Ruby on Rails IDE. Other installments include PhpStorm and WebStorm IDEs for PHP, HTML and JavaScript developers, respectively.

PyCharm is aimed directly at Python, Django and Google App Engine developers. Django is an open source web application framework, written in Python, which follows the model-view-controller architectural pattern.

"Personally, Python has been my favorite language for quite a while now. That's why I'm especially excited about sharing this powerful tool with other 'Pythonistas' around the world," said Dmitry Jemerov, JetBrains' PyCharm project lead, in a statement. "I'm certain that PyCharm will make their Python/Django development a real pleasure. Built on the IntelliJ platform, PyCharm naturally inherits its outstanding JavaScript, HTML and CSS editing features that all web developers will appreciate. I daresay that with all these capabilities, PyCharm will become a leading Python IDE even before its next major release."

JetBrains said PyCharm features a smart code editor that understands the specifics of Python and provides productivity

Boosters including: automatic code formatting, code completion, refactorings, auto-import, one-click code navigation, and more. Moreover, with the addition of advanced code analysis routines as a foundation, these features make PyCharm a useful tool for of both professional Python developers and those who are just starting out with the technology, the company said.

And because PyCharm is built on the IntelliJ platform, it inherits that product's support for JavaScript, HTML and CSS editing, among other features that web developers will benefit from. With these capabilities, PyCharm is expected to become a leading Python IDE even before its next major release, JetBrains said in a press release on PyCharm.

Meanwhile, PyCharm 1.0 also provides the following key features:

• Advanced support for Django development - including smart code completion, inspections, refactorings and specific code navigation.
• Integrated Python Debugger and graphical unit test runner.
• Support for the modern Python development toolchain, including virtualenv and buildout.
• Version Control Systems integration - unified UI for most popular VCS such as Mercurial, Git, SVN, Perforce and CVS.
• Google App Engine support - allows running and deploying your applications to the App Engine server, while ensuring that the code meets the requirements of the sandbox environment.
• REPL and Django consoles - with many advantages over the standard ones: on-the-fly syntax check with inspections; braces and quotes matching and pairs autoinsertion; and code completion.