I am learning Google App Engine / Python and I love it. Unfortunately I am not allowed to use my own computer in the office and not allowed to install anything on the corporate machine.
It would be so great to have an online IDE for Google App Engine where I could play with my Python code using any browser, including the one on my iPad.
Maybe http://www.devunity.com/ will be an online IDE for GAE some day. Do you know any existing way to program GAE in a browser?
There are two GAE Dev Environments that seem to work best IMHO. PyCharm can be configured to run/debug a GAE app by launching the dev_appserver.py from within. While PyCharm is definitely one of the nicest IDEs for Python the fact that that's all it does is a shame.
Personally (cringe if you want) the best for me and my students seems to still be Eclipse. Start with the latest Release (Oxygen.2) with either the Web Developer or PHP flavor from the installer. I then add WebClipse and PyDev from the Marketplace. No eclipse isn't the IDE that I think is "best"; however, it is a swiss army knife of IDEs and can do it all.
Choose the Python perspective after installation and create a new Project... (NOTE this is not a Python Project, rather a generic project) From the dialog choose the Python Google App Engine Project. Fill in the blanks (it will want you to identify where Python27 is and where google_appengine are located. The project can then be launched by right-clicking and selecting "debug GAE Project". It will auto start the dev_appserver, host your app at localhost:8080 and allow you all the native Python Debugging in Eclipse that PyDev can offer.
Hope this helps.
