After reading an excellent article by Kazi Manzur Rashidon setting up a development environment for Iron Ruby using Notepad++, I was immediately struck with an idea of using the same excellent tool with Python 2.6.

Now don’t get me wrong here, theoretically there is nothing wrong with IDLE, but having a light weight IDE for those who don’t want to use Pydevplugin for Aptanaor Eclipse, I think Notepad++ is indeed a nice little dev tool.

One of the amazing capabilities in Notepad++ is that one can assign shortcuts like(Cntrl + F5) and debug/interpret python script with python interpreter.

In order to Run python script from Run menu in Notepad++ you must Open Run > Run (or simply press F5), in the window that opens

cmd /K “$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)” this command assumes that Python path i.e.

c:/PythonXX/Python.exe or

c:/PythonXX/Pythonw.exe (If you don’t like console) is added in your Environment variables , if not you couldeither go to:

My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> PATH –> Edit and add this path there or use

cmd /k C:\Python26\python.exe then press save after putting in a friendly name and assigning a key board shortcut for example CNTRL + F5.

You could now see your entry in Run drop down menu at the last, incase you want to edit or remove this go to Settings>Shortcut mapper and press Run Commands tab and then right click to choose options from context menu and your all set.

Hope this helps :)