whY kernel development is not for the light-hearted

 The linux kernel is a huge behemoth

[pankaj@pankajlaptop pysph-perf]$ su -
Password:
[root@pankajlaptop ~]# yum --enablerepo fedora-debuginfo --enablerepo updates-debuginfo install kernel-debuginfo
Loaded plugins: auto-update-debuginfo, langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
Adding en_US to language list
Found 1 installed debuginfo package(s)
Enabling rpmfusion-nonfree-debuginfo: RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Nonfree - Debug
Enabling rpmfusion-free-updates-debuginfo: RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Free - Updates Debug
Enabling rpmfusion-free-debuginfo: RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Free - Debug
Enabling rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-debuginfo: RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Nonfree - Updates Debug
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kernel-debuginfo.x86_64 0:2.6.35.6-48.fc14 set to be installed
--> Processing Dependency: kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 = 2.6.35.6-48.fc14 for package: kernel-debuginfo-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64.x86_64 0:2.6.35.6-48.fc14 set to be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                           Arch                      Version                              Repository                            Size
=============================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 kernel-debuginfo                                  x86_64                    2.6.35.6-48.fc14                     updates-debuginfo                    239 M
Installing for dependencies:
 kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64                    x86_64                    2.6.35.6-48.fc14                     updates-debuginfo                     37 M

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================================================================================================
Install       2 Package(s)

Total download size: 276 M
Installed size: 1.6 G
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Setting up and reading Presto delta metadata
Processing delta metadata
Package(s) data still to download: 276 M
(1/2): kernel-debuginfo-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.x86_64.rpm                                                                                   | 239 MB     01:11    
(2/2): kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.x86_64.rpm                                                                     |  37 MB     00:11    
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                                        3.3 MB/s | 276 MB     01:23    
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing     : kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.x86_64                                                                                1/2
  Installing     : kernel-debuginfo-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.x86_64                                                                                              2/2

Installed:
  kernel-debuginfo.x86_64 0:2.6.35.6-48.fc14                                                                                                                

Dependency Installed:
  kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64.x86_64 0:2.6.35.6-48.fc14                                                                                                  

Complete!

[root@pankajlaptop ~]#

python editors in python: spyder and iep

This post is gonna be about python editors (IDEs if you may call, not but quite so)

If you are looking for IDEs, check out pydev and SPE, these are some of the best ones out there with integrated debugging features. There's also a wing editor which many people say is quite good, but i've never used it

Here i'm gonna list opinions about IEP and Spyder. I'm really interested in both of them and run their repository version.
My main issue is i want a good editor for cython, for which i am willing to get my hands dirty (a bit) and add some features myself (see http://powerpan.blogspot.com/2010/10/cython-functions-coverage-revsited.html), so if any of you can help me or have an opinion please do so.

Common features:
Both are python editors written in python (pyqt)
Both provide code completion support and outline
Both have integrated python shells

Differences:
Pros:

Spyder seems a bit more mature project
Spyder has ipython shell which is more useful than a python shell
IEP has outline support for cython

Cons:
Spyder seems to excessively misuse screen real estate - see this issue (editor areas are quite small)
IEP lacks some features such as tree file browser, shell variables, variable occurances marker, pylint support annotation
IEP is officially only for Python3, though you can surely work with python2 files (Also check http://code.google.com/r/pankaj86-iep-python2/source/browse if you really want to run it in python2 only)

Features both lack:
Graphical Debugger: get the code from pydev/winpdb to provide a graphical debugger
Cython support: I could certainly do well with more cython support. Outlining (iep does that), completion support in cython and goto definition (including into cython file from a python file)
Profiling support: Simply run profiling and put the result data into a table (spreadsheet widget)
Documentation: More documentation is needed for both the projects, especially developer documentation to implement new interesting plugins, such as profiling, debugging etc
Also it'd be cool if tooltips could be added to the editor to show documentation and other information on hovering on words in the editor, as in pydev

Few ideas:
Merge features from IEP to Spyder and vice versa. Add new features to both. Having two different projects is good in a way as it keep diversity and help in bringing new ideas. However that shouldn't mean they are independent without any co-operation. Both should surely work together to bring new features.

NOTE: The content may get outdated as you are reading it