Vim autocomplete for Python - python

I am trying to incorporate an autocomplete feature in Vim. I have used the omnicompletion of Vim as well as Pydiction. But in both the cases this message pops up:
Omni completion (^O^N^P) Pattern not found
I have tried Vim's Omnicompletion with Python just doesn't work. But this is not helping. Is there a workaround?

Try Jedi! There's a Vim plugin at https://github.com/davidhalter/jedi-vim.
It works just much better than anything else for Python in Vim. It even has support for renaming, goto, etc. The best part is probably that it really tries to understand your code (decorators, generators, etc. Just look at the feature list).

As pointed out by in the comments, this answers is outdated. youcompleteme now supports python3 and jedi-vim no longer breaks the undo history.
Original answer below.
AFAIK there are three options, each with its disadvantages:
youcompleteme: unfriendly to install, but works nice if you manage to get it working. However python3 is not supported.
jedi-vim: coolest name, but breaks your undo history.
python-mode does a lot more the autocomplete: folding, syntax checking, highlighting. Personally I prefer scripts that do 1 thing well, as they are easier to manage (and replace). Differently from the two other options, it uses rope instead of jedi for autocompletion.
Python 3 and undo history (gundo!) are a must for me, so options 1 and 2 are out.

This can be a good option if you want python completion as well as other languages. https://github.com/Valloric/YouCompleteMe
The python completion is jedi based same as jedi-vim.

I tried pydiction (didn't work for me) and the normal omnicompletion (too limited). I looked into Jedi as suggested but found it too complex to set up. I found python-mode, which in the end satisfied my needs. Thanks #klen.

I found a good choice to be coc.nvim with the python language server.
It takes a bit of effort to set up. I got frustrated with jedi-vim, because it would always freeze vim for a bit when completing. coc.nvim doesn't do it because it's asyncronous, meaning that . It also gives you linting for your code. It supports many other languages and is highly configurable.
The python language server uses jedi so you get the same completion as you would get from jedi.

Use install coc.nvim package and CocInstall coc-pyright
if you are using vim-plug:
Plug 'neoclide/coc.nvim'
:PlugInstall
CocInstall coc-pyright

I ran into this on my Mac using the MacPorts vim with +python. Problem was that the MacPorts vim will only bind to python 2.5 with +python, while my extensions were installed under python 2.7. Installing the extensions using pip-2.5 solved it.

Related

Python Code Completion

After using C# for long time I finally decided to switch to Python.
The question I am facing for the moment has to do about auto-complete.
I guess I am spoiled by C# and especially from resharper and I was expecting something similar to exist for Python.
My editor of choice is emacs and after doing some research I found autocomplete.pl, yasnippet and rope although it is not clear to me if and how they can be installed in a cygwin based system which is what I use since all the related documentation appears to be linux specific...
The version of emacs I currently use is 23.2.1 which bundles the python mode that although useful is far behind from whatever research has to offer.
My question to python users has to do about how common is autocomplete vs manual typing (using M-/ where possible) ?
I am thinking about just memorizing python build-in functions like len, append, extend etc. and revert close to a pre-autocomplete editing mode. How different such an approach is from what other pythonistas are doing?
I found this post
My Emacs Python environment
to be the most useful and comprehensive list of instructions and references on how to setup a decent Python development environment in Emacs regardless of OS platform. It is still a bit of work to setup but at least it covers the popular packages and components generally recommended for Python in Emacs that provide auto-completion functionality.
I loosely used this post as a guide to do the setup on my Windows machine with Emacs 23.2.1 and Python 2.6.5. Although, I also have Cygwin installed in some cases instead of running the *nix shell commands mentioned in the post, I just download the packages via a web browser, unzip them with 7zip, and copy them to my Emacs' plugin directory.
Also, to install Pymacs, Rope, and Ropemacs, I used Python's EasyInstall package manager. To use it, I downloaded and installed the setuptools package using the Windows install version. Once installed, at the command line, cd to their respective download locations and run the command
easy_install .
instead of the shell commands shown in the post.
Generally, I saved any *.el files in my ~\.emacs.d\plugins (e.g. in %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\.emacs.d\) and then updated my .emacs file to reference them as documented in the post.
Despite all this, on occasion, I've used DreamPie since it does have overall better auto-completion out of the box than my Emacs setup.
I'm spoiled by Intellisense too. The PyDev extensions for Eclipse offer a pretty good auto-complete substitute.
I find that PyDev + Eclipse can meet most of my needs. There is also PyCharm from the Intellij team. PyCharm has the added advantage of smooth integration with git.
I've been using PyScripter, an IDE for Windows, for a while now, and have found it very good. It has autocompletion among many other features. It's written in Delphi -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- it just bothers me a bit, though...
Take a look at Spyderlib, support most of the features including code completion
IMO, by far the easiest way to take advantage of the python tools available for emacs is to take advantage of the defaults that are all set up at:
https://github.com/gabrielelanaro/emacs-for-python
I actually took the time to get pymacs and ropemacs and python-mode all working independently before finding that little gem, and now I rely on it entirely for all my python based customizations. If you are new, I would definitely start there.

Pure Python in Xcode?

Could anyone tell me how to use pure Python without Cocoa support in Xcode? I can only find the Cocoa-Python template on the Internet.
Thanks in advance.
If you are just trying to write pure Python command line tools, using Xcode is like using a big sledge hammer to hit a tiny nail, in other words, probably not the best tool for the job. There are some old posts out there about how to set up a pure Python Xcode project, like this one, but, in the end, you might be better off using an editor you're already familiar with, like emacs, or, if you don't mind spending a little bit of money, TextMate, all along with a free vcs like mercurial or git. Or take a look in MacPorts for those and other options.
Just about the best IDE for editing and running Python code is actually still emacs. The python-mode for emacs does a wonderful job of maintaining whitespace and, with a bit of configuration, emacs is truly a powerful editor.
Pretty radically different than your typical GUI editor, certainly, and some find it quite distasteful. I've personally used emacs, mostly, for editing Python since 1992 or so.
Google will reveal all, including a native version of Emacs for Mac OS X.
A lot of people like eclipse with PyDev for python, although I don't know how wel it works on OS X with apple's mishandling of java.
Even though I am using BBEdit, I found Wingware Python editor did a good job in exploiting the introspected data of Python modules. Purely designed for Python. Give it a try.
http://www.wingide.com/

New to Python. Need info on the environment for it

I'm a complete newbie to Python. I've worked on PHP/JavaScript earlier but starting today I'm moving onto Python. I have no idea about the environment needed for it. I could use some suggestions on it for me to get started.
Under Unix, Emacs is a good choice, to which I always come back, because it is convenient to have a single editor for everything, and because it's open source.
What is best for you depends on your past experience with IDEs. I'd say: stick with what you've been using, or take this opportunity to try an even better IDE.
Note: Python comes with Idle, which is a very simple (if limited) IDE.
Be sure to check out IPython. It's an enhanced interactive python shell with a bunch of useful features such as Tab-Completion using introspection (eg, type "my_object." to see a list of its attributes and methods), logging your interactive session to an executable python-file, defining macros, etc. The documentation page has a link to the tutorial as well as screencasts showing it in action.
On my mac/Linux machines, python came pre-installed. On windows I use both jython under the eclipse IDE and ActivePython with their IDE/eclipse.   With eclipse you'll want PyDev.
It all depends on what you are looking for and what you are already using.
For instance, if you are using a more 'simple' editor at the moment: as long as it's got Python syntax you've got the basics.
If you are used to e.g. Eclipse you can just continue to use that, combined with Pydev. Besides syntax highlighting you'll also get more fancy features to help you debug and refactor your code.
Personally I use Emacs with python-mode (and a few other modes to interface with Subversion and Git). In the past I used Vim which also worked quite well.
My advice would be to start out with your current environment as long as it has some rudimentary support for Python. Once you are familiar with the language, start exploring what your environment is missing and either add it or if you cannot, switch to an enviroment which does support the feature.
I use gvim with some plugin in order to have better support for python.
If you like IDE, look at wing IDE wich is the best I have tested so far. Especially the debuger included is really helpful.
The Python Beginner's Guide and the official Python Tutorial both seem like good places to start.
Geany is a good option for a Linux setup, it's intellisense isn't that great but syntax highlighting is good and it can compile your code directly from inside the editor, plus it handles other languages such as C/C++, PHP, Java etc... Eric is another popular choice as it's a full IDE and I know some people use Eclipse.
On windows I use Notepad++, but it's mostly because I like text editors instead of fully blown IDE's.
Reference wise Daniel's choices are very good places to start, also check out Green Tea Press who do free computer books, there are two Python choices on there but the "Python for Software Design" book hasn't yet been published properly although you can download the manuscript. The "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" book is a good one and not as scary as it sounds.
IDLE is nice to try out things. Other tools that people like are Eclipse with the Pydev plugin which seems to work ok, although it has crashed a few times (Eclipse, that is) and NetBeans (which I haven't tried) but some people seem to like.
I can only help you if you're running a Mac. Download Xcode. I believe that Python 2.3 comes bundled with these development tools. Luckily enough, this is all you really need to get started, unless you want a newer version of Python.
All you need to do is open up Terminal and type python. You're done!

Recommendations for Python development on a Mac?

I bought a low-end MacBook about a month ago and am finally getting around to configuring it for Python. I've done most of my Python work in Windows up until now, and am finding the choices for OS X a little daunting. It looks like there are at least five options to use for Python development:
"Stock" Apple Python
MacPython
Fink
MacPorts
roll-your-own-from-source
I'm still primarily developing for 2.5, so the stock Python is fine from a functionality standpoint. What I want to know is: why should I choose one over the other?
Update:
To clarify, I am looking for a discussion of the various options, not links to the documentation. I've marked this as a Community Wiki question, as I don't feel there is a "correct" answer. Thanks to everyone who has already commented for their insight.
One advantage I see in using the "stock" Python that's included with Mac OS X is that it makes deployment to other Macs a piece of cake. I don't know what your deployment scenario is, but for me this is important. My code has to run on any number of Macs at work, and I try to minimize the amount of work it takes to run my code on all of those systems.
I would highly recommend using MacPorts with Porticus for managing your Python installation. It takes a while to build everything, but the advantage is that whatever you build yourself will be built against the same libraries, so you won't have to futz around with statically linked shared objects, etc. if you want your Python stuff to work with Apache, PostgreSQL, etc.
If you choose to go this way, remember to install the python_select port and use it to make your system use the Python installed from MacPorts.
As an added bonus, MacPorts has packages for most main-stream Python eggs, so if you should be able to have MacPorts keep you up-to-date with the latest versions of all that stuff :)
Here's some helpful info to get you started. http://www.python.org/download/mac/
Depends what you are using python for. If you are using MacOS funitionality and things like PyObjC you are probably best of with MacPython or the python provided by Apple.
I use Python on my Mac mostly for development of server side applications which later will run on FreeBSD & Linux boxes. For that I have used fink python for a few years and ever since MacPorts python. With mac ports it is simple to add required c modules (like database driver etc). It's also easy to keep two python Versions (2.5 & 2.6 in my case) around.
I used "compile your own" python to test pre-3.0 python but generally I find managing dependencies to c modules painfull if done by hand.
Thanks to easy_install installing pure python modules is fast and easy for all the options mentioned above.
I was never very much an IDE person. For development I use command line subversion installed by MacPorts, Textmate and occasionaly Expandrive do directly access files on servers. I personally are very dependent on Bicyclerepairman for Textmade to handle my refactoring needs.
Others seem to be very happy with Eclipse & Pydev.
How about EPD from Enthought? Yes, it's large but it is a framework build and includes things like wxPython, vtk, numpy, scipy, and ipython built-in.
I recommend using Python Virtual environments, especially if you use a Timecapsule because Timecapsule will back everything up, except modules you added to Python!
Based on the number of bugs and omissions people have been encountering in Leopard python (just here on SO!), I couldn't recommend that version. e.g., see:
Why do I get wrong results for hmac in Python but not Perl?
Problems on select module on Python 2.5
I would choose MacPorts.
It does not eliminate your existing python supplied by Apple since it installs by default in /opt/local/bin (plays nice with it) and plus it is easy to download and install additional python modules (even binary modules that you need to compile!). I use Porticus GUI to maintain my MacPorts installed list of packages, including python.
In my windows environment I use Eclipse and PyDev, which works quite well together, even if it's a bit sparse. Apparently the exact same environment is available for the Mac as well, so I suggest downloading Eclipse and using the internal update software function to update PyDev with the URL http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/. To look further into PyDev, look here.
Apple's supplied python is quite old – my tiger install has 2.3.5. This may not be a problem for you, but you would be missing out on a lot. Also, there is a risk that Apple will update it. I'm not sure if moving from 2.3.5 to (say) 2.4 would cause code to break, but I guess it's possible. This happened to perl people recently: http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/18/1435227
Macpython is a framework build (as is Apple's, I believe). To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it's a prerequisite for some modules, in particular wxPython. If you get python from macports or fink, you will not be able to run wxPython (unless you run it through X11).
And guess what was forgotten by every answer here ... ActivePython.
No compilation required, even for third-party modules such as numpy, lxml, pyqt and thousands of others.
I recommend python (any python?) plus the ipython shell. My most recent experience with MacPython was MacPython 2.5, and I found IDLE frustrating to use as an editor. It's not very featureful, and its' very slow to scroll large quantities of output.

Has anyone found a good set of python plugins for vim -- specifically module completion?

I'm looking for a suite of plugins that can help me finally switch over to vim full-time.
Right now I'm using Komodo with some good success, but their vim bindings have enough little errors that I'm tired of it.
What I do love in Komodo, though, is the code completion. So, here's what I'm looking for (ordered by importance).
Code completion, meaning: the ability to code complete modules/functions/etc. in any module that's on the pythonpath, not just system modules. Bonus points for showing docstrings when completing.
Jump-to a class definition. I'm guessing CTAGS will do this, so how do you all manage automatically updating your tags files?
Project type management for managing buffers: ideally the ability to grep for a filename in a directory structure to open it. Bonus for showing an index of class definitions while a buffer is open.
Bzr integration. Not super important, since most of it I can just drop to the shell to do.
Here you can find some info about this.
It covers code completion, having a list of classes and functions in open files. I haven't got around to do a full configuration for vim, since I don't use Python primarily, but I have the same interests in transforming vim in a better Python IDE.
Edit: The original site is down, so found it saved on the web archive.
And I write another plugin: https://github.com/klen/python-mode
Old (now its more powerful) screencast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67OZNp9Z0CQ
Old question, but I typed all this up for a misread question...
General plugin recommendations: LookupFile and a plugin for your source control system (I like Git and Git-Vim).
Python plugin recommendations: If you're using Linux, I'd recommend ipython and ipy.py (a better interactive interpreter). Improved syntax highlighting, snippets, pydoc, and for refactoring support bicyclerepairman. I got started with this post.
You may want to try looking through someone's vimfiles. Mine are on github.
For refactoring: ropevim
Here is some info on Bazaar integration if you're interested:
https://launchpad.net/bzr-vim-commands
I use pydoc.vim (I actually wrote it) a lot, try it and tell me what you think. Another one that I think is quite useful is the updated syntax file with all it's extensions that you can enable, which you can find here.
I use Pydiction (http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=850) it's a plugin for vim that lets you Tab-complete python modules/methods/attributes/keywords, including 3rd party stuff like Pygame, wxPython, Twisted, and literally everything. It works more accurately than other things i've tried and it doesn't even require that python support be compiled into your Vim.
Code completion: PySmell looks promising. It's work-in-progress, but alredy useful.
I personally thinkJedi Vim is the best, but it is incompatible with python-mode.

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