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What tools are available to help counter poor memory of programming language rules and syntax, particularly in relation to Python?

I use Geany on Linux, and find that word completion and snippets help, but they are not nearly enough. Having Python documentation open in a browser also helps, as does StackOverflow, but searching them takes time and sometimes I'm not too sure of what I am searching for.

Do tools exists, for Geany or otherwise, that make Python language rules and syntax easier to access? I envisage a popup dialog that might appear over a term or a code object, with concise explanation... Is there such a thing?

Any other techniques (other than purely mental ones of 'practice makes perfect' and improving one's memory) that can be suggested to overcome this problem?

EDIT:

I have now found that IDLE, the default IDE that comes with Python offers exactly what I am looking for: if I type x.append(, L.append(object) -> None -- append object to end comes up, just the type of info needed if I forget the appending is in place.

Unfortunately, the feature seems very limited, can't make it appear on most keywords, and anyway, I dislike IDLE for its outdated interface.

PyDev for Eclipse also seems to offer something similar, perhaps more comprehensive, but requires Java 7 to run.

Is that it? Or are there others? I can't make sense of research on Vim - does Vim offer what I found in IDLE?

BTW, thanks to all the overzealos SO fascists for voting this down. Very helpful indeed!

ChrisF
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X-Mann
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    Do you need help with syntax or library APIs? Because Python is dynamically-typed, I find auto-completion in Python to always be lacking and much less helpful than in Java or C variants. – Brent C Oct 21 '15 at 18:40
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    @PeterWood this is a poor fit for programmers: it is a bit broad and is asking for offsite resources. Please read: **[What goes on Programmers.SE? A guide for Stack Overflow](http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/q/7182/22815)**. –  Oct 21 '15 at 18:56
  • @DhaLee SO is trying to be a QA website where the questions are specific and there are unlikely to be lots of competing answers. It shouldn't be that the most upvoted answer is the best, it should be there is only one answer. That's the ideal we are aiming for, and your question just doesn't fit. – Peter Wood Oct 21 '15 at 19:45

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I'm not sure if this works for that particular distribution of Linux, but you should be able to use Microsoft VS Code, especially for web-based applications. It helps catch syntax errors without having to go through trial and error.

If you don't do that, then try this:

  1. Put print statements between each small section of buggy code, printing a number.
  2. Run the code.
  3. Look at the last printed number to see where your problem is.
Colby Gallup
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