Python dev on mac

[Carlis]

My university wants med to learn python. I cant say I am very eager to learn such a minor language, but here I am...
My question is what app to use for developing. I am aware of the software one can download from www.python.org. What I want to know is if there is any IDE that will give the user some support. For example, netbeans (java) can point out misstypes, inform about imports and ad throw / catch statements. Very useful when learning i new language. Is there anything similar for python?
By the way, can one compile/run python code in terminal?

 

[Megatomic]

Carlis, I used to work at a national laboratory (particle accelerator) and all the physicists wrote in python. Considering the fact that you are a physics student and all python may not be such a bad idea. TCL/Tk was also a biggie.

I don't have an answer for the IDE question though, sorry.

 

[kamper]

You don't compile python, but of course you can run it in the terminal. I actually don't use anything other than a text editor and the interactive interpreter which is sort of a different paradigm than an IDE but it's so good for learning the language. Also, check out http://www.pythonmac.org/packages/ because the version of python that apple ships (at least with 10.4) is just embarrassing.

I believe this is the main eclipse plugin. I'm sure it can be used together with the interactive interpreter.

 

[Carlis]

Perhaps it is not wasted time then. I guess learning another language wont hurt me...
Thanks for the eclipse plug.

 

[Stan]

Google uses Python heavily as well. It is by no means "minor".