View source for Eric (software)

{{Infobox software
| name                   = eric
| logo                   = Eric Logo.png
| logo size              = 200px
| logo alt               = The logo of eric
| screenshot             = Screenshot Eric 4.png
| screenshot size        = 300px
| screenshot alt         = Screenshot of eric4 running in KDE SC 4
| caption                = eric4 running in [[KDE Software Compilation 4|KDE SC 4]]
| collapsible            = 
| author                 = Detlev Offenbach
| developer              = Detlev Offenbach
| released               = {{Start date and age|2002|df=no}} <!-- Please use the following if you know exact month and date: {{Start date and age|2002|??|??|df=no}} -->
| discontinued           = 
| latest release version = 17.10
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|2017|10|7|df=no}}
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date    = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| status                 = active
| programming language   = [[Python (programming language)|Python]]
| operating system       = [[Linux]], [[macOS]], [[Microsoft Windows]]
| platform               = [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[Qt (software)|Qt]], [[PyQt]]
| size                   = 
| language               = English, German, French, Russian, Czech, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Chinese
| language count         = <!-- Number only -->
| language footnote      = 
| genre                  = [[Integrated Development Environment]]
| license                = [[GNU General Public License#Version 3|GPL "version 3 or later"]]
| alexa                  = {{Increase}} 492,681 (July 2016)<ref>[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Feric-ide.python-projects.org Alexa.com: Global rank of python-projects.org]</ref><!-- Put {{Increase}} OR {{Steady}} OR {{Decrease}} BEFORE the ranking number to indicate the change of ranking compared with the previous month.-->
| website                = {{URL|https://eric-ide.python-projects.org}}
| standard               = 
| AsOf                   = 
}}

'''eric''' is a [[Free Software|free]] [[integrated development environment]] (IDE) used for [[computer programming]].

eric is a full featured IDE, providing by default all necessary tools needed for the writing of [[Source code|code]] and for the professional [[Project management|management]] of a software project.<ref name="i-programmer">[http://www.i-programmer.info/news/216-python/7831-eric-the-python-ide.html i-programmer.info:] "Eric The Python IDE"</ref><ref name="Hitchhiker">[http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/env The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python:] Your Development Environment</ref>

eric is written in the [[programming language]] [[Python (programming language)|Python]] and its primary use is for [[Software development|developing]] [[software]] written in Python. Nevertheless, eric also supports many other programming languages, and the level of support of [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]] is almost as high as for Python.

eric is usable for development of any combination of Python 3 or Python 2, [[Qt (software)|Qt 5]] or Qt 4 and [[PyQt]] 5 or PyQt 4 projects, on [[Linux]], [[macOS]] and [[Microsoft Windows]] platforms.

== License, price and distribution==
eric is licensed under the [[GNU General Public License#Version 3|GNU General Public License "version 3 or later"]] and is thereby [[Free Software]]. This means in general terms that the [[source code]] of eric can be studied, changed and improved by anyone, that eric can be run for any purpose by anyone and that eric - and any changes or improvements that may have been made to it - can be redistributed by anyone to anyone as long as the license is not changed ([[copyleft]]).

The author distributes eric without charge; he provides an option for voluntary donations via [[PayPal]] on his homepage.

eric can be downloaded at [[Sourceforge]] and installed manually with a python installer script.<ref>[https://sourceforge.net/projects/eric-ide Sourceforge: Eric Integrated Development Environment]</ref>
Most major [[Linux distribution|GNU/Linux distributions]] include eric in their [[Software repository|software repositories]], so when using such GNU/Linux distributions eric can be obtained and installed automatically by using the [[package manager]] of the particular distribution.<ref>[http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity distrowatch.com: Page hit ranking of distributions]</ref><ref>[http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=eric&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all Ubuntu package search: eric]</ref><ref>[https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=eric&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all Debian package search: eric]</ref><ref>[https://software.opensuse.org/search?q=eric&baseproject=ALL&search_devel=false&search_unsupported=false openSUSE package search: eric]</ref><ref>[https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/eric Fedora repository: eric]</ref>
Additionally, the author offers access to the [[source code]] via a public [[Mercurial]] repository.<ref>[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-code.html Official website: Access information for mercurial repository]</ref>

== Characteristics==
eric is written in Python and uses the [[PyQt]] Python bindings for the [[Qt (framework)|Qt]] [[GUI toolkit]].
By design, eric acts as a front end for several programs, for example the [[QScintilla]] editor widget, the python language interpreter, Rope for [[code refactoring]] and Python Profiler for [[Profiling (computer programming)|code profiling]].

The functionality of eric is extensible via a plug-in mechanism. The eric plug-in repository provides various kinds of extensions and is accessible from within the IDE.

===Features ===
The key features of eric 6 are:<ref>[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org eric-ide.python-projects.org:] Features</ref>
*Source code editing:
** Unlimited number of [[Text editor|editors]]
** Configurable window layout
** Configurable [[syntax highlighting]]
** Sourcecode [[Autocomplete|autocompletion]]
** Sourcecode calltips
** [[Code folding|Sourcecode folding]]
** [[Brace matching]]
** Error highlighting
** Advanced search functionality including project wide search and replace
** Integrated [[class browser]]
** Integrated profiling and [[code coverage]] support
*GUI designing:
** Integration of [[Qt Creator|Qt Designer]], a [[Graphical user interface builder]] for the creation of Qt-based [[Graphical user interface]]s
*Debugging, checking, testing and documenting:
** Integrated graphical python debugger which supports both interactive probing while suspended and auto breaking on exceptions as well as debugging multi-threaded and multiprocessing applications
** Integrated automatic code checkers (syntax, errors and style, PEP-8) for [[static program analysis]] as well as support of [[Pylint]] via plug-in
** Integrated source code documentation system
** Integrated [[unit testing]] support by having the option to run python code with command-line parameters
** Integrated interface to the enchant spell checking library
** Application diagrams
*Version control:
** Integrated [[version control]] support for [[Mercurial]] and [[Apache Subversion|Subversion]] repositories (as core plug-ins) and [[Git (software)|git]] (as optional plug-in)
*Project management and collaboration:
** Advanced project management facilities
** Integrated task management with a self-updating [[TODO list]]
** Integrated cooperation functions (chat, shared editor)
*Other:
** Integrated web browser
** Integrated support for [[Django (web framework)|Django]] (as optional plug-in)
** Running external applications from within the IDE
** Interactive Python shell including syntax hilighting and autocompletion
** Integrated CORBA support based on omniORB
** Integrated rope refactoring tool (as optional plug-in)
** Integrated interface to cx_freeze (as optional plug-in)
** Many integrated wizards for regex and Qt dialogs (as core plug-ins)
** Tools for previewing Qt forms and translations

=== Support for Python 2 and 3===
Prior to the release of eric version 5.5.0, eric version 4 and eric version 5 coexisted and were maintained simultaneously, while eric 4 was the variant for writing software in Python version 2 and eric version 5 was the variant for writing software in Python version 3.

With the release of eric version 5.5.0 both variants had been merged into one, so that all versions as of eric version 5.5.0 support writing software in Python 2 as well as in Python 3, making the separate development lanes of eric version 4 and 5 obsolete. Those two separate development lanes are no longer maintained, and the last versions prior to merging them both to 5.5.0 were versions 4.5.25 and 5.4.7.<ref name="eric news 2014"/>

=== Gallery ===

{{Gallery
|title=
|width=250 | height=200
|align=center
|File:Eric3 under arch.png 
 |alt1=Screenshot showing eric 3 on Arch Linux with Xfce 4.4
 |Eric 3 on Arch Linux with Xfce 4.4
|File:Screenshot Eric 4.png
 |alt2=Screenshot showing eric 4
 |Eric 4
}}

== Releases ==

===Versioning scheme===
eric uses a [[software versioning]] scheme with a three-sequence identifier, e.g. 5.0.1. The first sequence represents the major version number which is increased when there are significant jumps in functionality, the second sequence represents the minor number, which is incremented when only some features or significant fixes have been added, and the third sequence is the revision number, which is incremented when minor bugs are fixed or minor features have been added.

===Release strategy===
eric follows the [[List of software development philosophies|development philosophy]] of ''[[Release early, release often]]'', following loosely a time-based release schedule. Currently a revision version is released around the first weekend of every month, a minor version is released annually, in most cases approximately between December and February.

===Version history===
The following table shows the version history of eric, starting from version 4.0.0.
Only major (e.g. 6.0.0) and minor (e.g. 6.1.0) releases are listed; revision releases (e.g. 6.0.1) are omitted.
<!--Template:Version - for version & release history. Documentation & examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Version-->
{{Version |t |show=11101}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background-color: #ececec;" valign="top"|
! Branch
! Version
! Release date
! Major changes

|-
|rowspan=6|4
| {{Version |o |4.0.0}}
| 2007-06-03
|
|-
| {{Version |o |4.1.0}}
| 2008-02-03
|
* Added [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-in]] system<ref name="eric news 2007">[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-news-2007.html eric news 2007]</ref>
* Added support for [[Django (web framework)|'''Django''']] and [[TurboGears]] (later transformed to plug-ins)<ref name="eric news 2007"/>
|-
| {{Version |o |4.2.0}}
| 2008-08-09
|
* Added a toolbar manager
|-
| {{Version |o |4.3.0}}
| 2009-02-08
|
* Changed license to GPL "v3 or later"
|-
| {{Version |o |4.4.0}}
| 2010-01-09
|
* Changed the help viewer to a full blown web browser (based on QtWebKit)<ref name="eric news 2010">[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-news-2010.html eric news 2010]</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o |4.5.0}}
| 2012-02-04
|
* Added Mac OS X to the officially supported platforms<ref name="eric news 2012">[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-news-2012.html eric news 2012]</ref>
|-
|rowspan=6|5
| {{Version |o |5.0.0}}
| 2010-07-04
|
* The eric 5 branch represents the new '''Python 3''' variant of eric. It is ''not'' supporting '''Python 2''' (yet). For Python 2 support the development of the eric 4 branch is continued.<ref name="eric news 2010"/>
|-
| {{Version |o |5.1.0}}
| 2011-02-27
|
|-
| {{Version |o |5.2.0}}
| 2012-02-18
|
* Added Mac OS X to the officially supported platforms<ref name="eric news 2012"/>
|-
| {{Version |o |5.3.0}}
| 2013-02-03
|
* Added support for '''Qt5'''<ref name="eric news 2013">[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-news-2013.html eric news 2013]</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o |5.4.0}}
| 2014-01-07
|
* Added support for '''PyQt5''' projects<ref name="eric news 2014">[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-news-2014.html eric news 2014]</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o |5.5.0}}
| 2014-10-27
|
*  Added '''Python 2''' support to the eric 5 branch, so that from now on both, '''Python 3''' and '''Python 2''', are supported by one single version of eric, making the eric 4 branch for Python 2 obsolete, which is not further continued<ref name="eric news 2014"/>
|-
|rowspan=2|6
| {{Version |o |6.0.0}}
| 2014-12-28
|
* eric 6 replaces the eric 5.5.x line of development. It is usable with any combination of '''Python 2''' or '''Python 3''', '''Qt5''' or '''Qt4''' and '''PyQt5''' or '''PyQt4''', on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms
|-
| {{Version |c |6.1.0}}
| 2015-12-05
|
* Added multithreading support for checkers to make use of multiple CPUs/CPU-Cores<ref name="eric news 2015">[https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-news-2015.html eric news 2015]</ref>
|}

== Name ==
Several allusions are made to the British comedy group [[Monty Python]], which the Python programming language is named after. Eric alludes to [[Eric Idle]], a member of the group, and [[IDLE (Python)|IDLE]], the standard python IDE shipped with most distributions.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Free software|Python programming}}
{{commons category|Eric (software)}}
* [[Comparison of integrated development environments#Python|Comparison of integrated development environments for Python]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{de icon}} Farid Hajji, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vfzazxfQScYC&pg=PA663&dq=eric4+python&cd=1#v=onepage&q=eric4&f=false Das Python-Praxisbuch: Der große Profi-Leitfaden für Programmierer]'', Pearson Education, 2008, {{ISBN|3-8273-2543-9}}, p.&nbsp;1142
* [https://www.linux.com/community/blogs/133-general-linux/119345 Linux.com] "My experiences with Eric, a Python IDE", 2009

== External links ==
* {{Official website|https://eric-ide.python-projects.org}}
* {{sourceforge|eric-ide}}
* [http://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-code.html Official website:] Official Mercurial source code repository information
* [http://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-documentation.html Official website:] eric documentation
* [http://eric-ide.python-projects.org/eric-tutorials.html Official website:] eric tutorials
* {{youtube|wvCbLVPSDqg|Short video demonstration of eric version 4 on [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]]}}
* {{youtube|PnAI2MNbeVY|Short video showing how to create a Django project with eric version 4 on [[Fedora (operating system)|Fedora]]}}

[[Category:Code navigation tools]]
[[Category:Cross-platform free software]]
[[Category:Debuggers]]
[[Category:Free HTML editors]]
[[Category:Free integrated development environments]]
[[Category:Free integrated development environments for Python]]
[[Category:Free software programmed in Python]]
[[Category:Linux integrated development environments]]
[[Category:Linux programming tools]]
[[Category:MacOS programming tools]]
[[Category:Programming tools for Windows]]
[[Category:Python software]]
[[Category:Software that uses Qt]]
[[Category:Software that uses Scintilla]]
[[Category:Software using the GPL license]]