IDEs and python

While many seem to like just using a text editor, there's nothing like an IDE that will lint your code as you go.

If you are completely green to python and in particular IDE's, you might try spyder. It's already installed in the IOOS distribution of Anaconda. In time you might outgrow spyder and try vscode or pycharm.

I am on the fence between Visual Studio Code and PyCharm.

PyCharm Community (free) Edition

Complicated, and is playing nicer with Anaconda for me at the moment. I'll add more here about setting it up as I remember it.

VS Code (free)

Simpler, more elegant, cleaner interface. Recommended by many guests on the Talk Python To Me podcast. I am not finding Anaconda integration so straightforward. This is one method I am trying: https://mscodingblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/setup-integrated-terminal-in-vs-code-to.html If conda integration improves - I'll switch to vscode.