Python

Default modes

There are a number of python modes for Emacs. fgallina's python.el is the python.el included in Emacs 24.2 and onwards.

All-in-one solutions

emacs-for-python

emacs-for-python is a bundle of the above modes (and more), and it's an easy way to turn Emacs into a Python IDE.

emacs-for-python at github

Elpy

Elpy is a collection of elisp packages for Python too.

https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/elpy/wiki/Features

Auto-Completion

rope & ropemacs

rope is a library for refactoring and manipulating Python code. ropemacs is an Emacs interface to the rope library.

rope homepage

ropemacs homepage

Jedi

Jedi.el is a Python auto-completion package for Emacs. It aims at helping your Python coding in a non-destructive way. It also helps you to find information about Python objects, such as docstring, function arguments and code location.

Jedi is simple to install and it just works.

See screenshots and get the full documentation : http://tkf.github.io/emacs-jedi/released/

Jedi's official page: http://jedi.jedidjah.ch/en/latest/

Installation

Install Jedi.el via el-get, Marmalade or MELPA (see install for more info) and add this to your Emacs configuration:

   (add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'jedi:setup)
   (setq jedi:setup-keys t)                      ; optional
   (setq jedi:complete-on-dot t)                 ; optional

or call M-x jedi:setup

Code Checker

Flymake

flymake is a on-the-fly syntax checker for Emacs. We can use it alongside with flyspell.

To run pep8, pylint, pyflakes and unit-tests (with nose), you can be interested in using flymake-python.

Don't forget about pylint too.

Other tools

Pymacs

Pymacs is an Emacs extension that enables the use of Python alongside with Emacs Lisp.

Pymacs homepage

Debugging

Ipdb, ipython debugger

If you call ipdb, the execution will stop and give a nice ipython-looking prompt. Just add `import ipdb; ipdb.set_trace()`

You can use the following to highlight this line, and not forget it :

; Highlight the call to ipdb
; src http://pedrokroger.com/2010/07/configuring-emacs-as-a-python-ide-2/
(defun annotate-pdb ()
  (interactive)
  (highlight-lines-matching-regexp "import ipdb")
  (highlight-lines-matching-regexp "ipdb.set_trace()"))
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'annotate-pdb)

pdb track

If you use emacs-for-python given above, you can track your source code while debugging with pdbtrack.

A tool to use in a non-emacs terminal would be pdbpp

See also

You'll be certainly interested in :

Magit, a git interface

Emacs + git is magic : magit

Yasnippet, a template system

yasnippet

ELPA packages

If you're running Emacs 24, check out some ELPA packages:

M-x list-packages

and see flymake-pyhon-pyflakes, flymake-shell, virtualenv, abl-mode (a python TDD minor-mode), jedi (a python auto-completion for emacs), nose (easy python test-running in emacs), pyregexp, python-magic and more.