[mikewarot]

I've been using IDEs since Turbo Pascal came out. Delphi 5 was the most productive thing I've ever used for building GUI programs.

Python and languages that support lists, dictionaries, etc. natively have an advantage as far as expressivity. Generics and other support in Lazarus, the Delphi clone I use, lag far behind. However, for building GUI programs, it's still the best option for me.

Something even better for non-gui programs is IDLE, the python REPL... it lets you experiment with the data interactively, the make a program out of it, once you've figured out your algorithm, etc.

Better support of REPLs inside the IDE would be the way to go, I think.