How to get started with a bare-bones Eclipse + PyDev

Question

I am planning to move from SPE to Eclipse + PyDev for better code completion. I think SPE's code completion is rather weird.

Anyway, how should I get started with Eclipse + PyDev? I browsed http://www.eclipse.org and I found that Eclipse is made up of some base/core system and plugins are added for more functionality. I also stumbled upon http://www.easyeclipse.org which offers a ready-to-use Eclipse + PyDev distribution.

I have two options: the easy way and the hard way.

EASY WAY
Just download from http://www.easyeclipse.org. Problem is, I can't decide which version to use, v1.2.2.2 or v1.3.1?

HARD WAY
I want to keep a lean Eclipse installation, so I want to start out with a bare-bones download, then add plug-ins as I advance in skill. As of the moment, all I want in an IDE is the following:

1. Proper code completion, and
2. An easy shortcut key to run the current program. It should be something like F5 or F9.

Eventually, I will want to use more advanced tools, but I want to add plug-ins when I need or want to learn them:

1. Debugging
2. Unit testing
3. Version control

What plug-ins should I install to get the specific features I just mentioned?

Answer 1

I've never really used the PyDev with Eclipse, but Eclipse comes with shortcut keys - you can change them to whatever suits you. If you install the standard version of Eclipse (which isn't exactly "lean", you know) with PyDev, you should have debugging built in. You can get Eclipse plugins for virtually any VCS you like, whether that's git or bazaar, subversion or CVS. Just check out the list.

edit: and it doesn't look like there's any reason not to use the newest stable version of Easyclipse, if that's what you decide.

Answer 2

The leanest Eclipse installation is the Platform Runtime Binary at around 50MB (look for it in the middle of the page). Install it and then once in eclipse go to Help->Install New Software... and use http://pydev.org/updates as link to install PyDev and you are done. Not very hard at all.

Answer 3

I have used EasyEclipse for a while, but though less errors and incompatibilities occurred than in the standard version at that time, I didn't like that some modules were either too old or not supported at all. Meanwhile the standard distribution is stable enough.

Debugging and unit testing are integrated in PyDev. You must configure the Python interpreter in the preferences, "Auto config" should do, then choose "Run as..." "Python unit-test" on a Python module, and for debugging see the "Run" menu. Version control depends on what you use, I think CVS is already integrated, but I use Subversion, and for that you need to install the Subversive plugin (meanwhile available from the Eclipse repositories, but you must still install it).