[veddox]

Hm, that is a dangerous question to ask. I assume that you are a newbie to programming in general, so just to let you know, you have asked a question that has had programmers bashing away at each other for the past thirty years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war)...

HN does not encourage flamewar topics. (From the guidelines: "Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.") For future reference, a better question to ask would have been: "What is a good Python beginner's IDE/text editor?" A phrasing like that is less likely to lead to strong reactions from your readers the way asking for the "best" editor might :-)

There are many relevant articles out there on the web that can help you along. Here are just two: http://pythoncentral.io/comparison-of-python-ides-developmen... http://pythoncentral.io/best-text-editors-for-python-develop...

In the end, just choose one and stick with it for the time being. You'll have plenty opportunity to go scouting for the "perfect editor" once you've actually learnt the language you need it for :-)

[pizza]

In all fairness, the dangerous questions are often the opposite of the lowest hanging fruit; low chance of achievement, risky and ambiguous payoff, but maybe worth it after all.

But to not broach the question at all for the sake of avoiding the volume of dialogue it might produce seems kinda odd, imo. Now that I think of it, maybe frequent and small flamewars clear the brush better than infrequent infernos, ha.

[veddox]

> But to not broach the question at all for the sake of avoiding the volume of dialogue it might produce seems kinda odd, imo.

Yeah, I guess you're right, maybe I was a bit overcautious there. Nonetheless, I do think that it is better to ask specific questions rather than the blanket "what's the best X?" Note that this is not limited to text editors - there are very few domains in life where a "best" anything is to be found. Asking specific, non-emotionalized questions ("What is a good X under condition Y?") is more likely to lead to constructive answers.