Getting to Know the Spyder IDE for Python

Whether you’re a beginner programmer, casual coder, data analyst/scientist, or anyone else that uses Python, I’d recommend you at least check out Spyder, among other IDEs. Granted, it may not the best choice if you’re a full-time Python developer. But otherwise it has a lot to offer with its blend of intuitive, beginner-friendly design and broad, powerful set of shoulders. I mean features.

If you’re interested, see the video above for a tour of Spyder where I run you through the basics, including a set of simple keyboard shortcuts. And below you’ll find a list of said keyboard shortcuts you can follow along with.

To be clear, these aren’t the optimal shortcuts you’d get with something like Vim, and your hand will regularly have to venture over to the arrow keys and their neighbors.

“Real Programmers” by xkcd, used under CC BY-NC 2.5, compressed

But you will avoid the mouse for the most part. And importantly, the learning curve is gentle so you’ll be able to focus your cognitive resources on the code. Not to mention that, if you’re a beginner, it’s going to be a while before your mind outpaces your fingers anyways.

So what I want to do here is show you the handful of shortcuts that are:

• useful to beginners, ones that anyone could regularly use
• reasonably intuitive, not too hard to memorize
• Spyder’s default shortcuts, so you don’t need to make any changes
• the same across different operating systems

First, here are the shortcuts you should know when working in the code editor.

Spyder Code Editor Shortcuts

Keep in mind that many of these Code Editor shortcuts also apply to the IPython console. But there are some commands that only apply to the console, the most useful of which are the following:

Spyder IPython Console Shortcuts

So what do you think? Are you a fan of Spyder yet? Or would something like the Forbidden IDE be more your style? Let me know if you have any questions.

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