The choices of Python IDE are all terrible. Sublime is least bad.
- To move kids from Scratch to Python we need some form of code-completion. So we need a proper IDE. I firmly believe they'll struggle with just a text editor; or to be specific it will greatly limit the sophistication of the projects we can do, and thus turn the kids off Python. We need graphical games to keep their enthusiasm.
- PyCharm is theoretically free for use in schools but I have struggled to get a license out of them for CodeClub purposes. (It would take official letters from the CodeClub founders apparently). Eclipse is, of course, open-source.
- Eclipse is massive and bloated and doesn't work on the Atom-based netbooks at my school.
Sublime has poor code completion, and sadly no built-in git support, but otherwise works really well. It's colourful and lightweight.
git and github are obviously very complicated and to be avoided when teaching kids. But they were the best idea I could come up with:
- With the Scratch exercises the kids are used to uploading their projects so that they can work on them from home and/or show their parents. This achieves the same, although we will need to go through some hassle teaching them to upload etc.
- github is unlikely to have been blocked by different schools (I hope). It uses https so school proxies probably won't interfere too much?? (These statements may be entirely wrong.)
- At a simple level it works well with PyCharm (for checking code out).
I believe all upload/download steps should be by rote as opposed to trying to understand git/github because that could be a whole terms' curriculum in itself.
You'll notice that the source code for the problems (and their solutions) is stored in submodules within the main git project.
I have a love/hate relationship with submodules but I think it works OK in this case. It means that the code projects themselves can be stored independently on github, and further, that different revisions of the same project can be used for problem/solution code.
Kids can therefore check out the problem code as an individual repository during an exercise,
whilst for a teacher/guide to check out the whole thing it's a matter of checking out the parent
project and then just running git submodule update --init.
Just because it's easy to edit and for git to merge, so multiple people can be working on these projects without the risk of binary files having merge conflicts. It also has the advantage that it can automatically show nicely formatted Python code.
On the other hand it's proving to be an almighty pain for constructing the Scratch-Python cheatsheet, and it's hopeless for pretty formatting along the lines of the Scratch CodeClub exercises.
To follow the official Term Four Python curriculum.