Wing 101 is a Python IDE that has been specially designed for teaching purposes. In this respect, it is a limited edition of other products by the same name. In my opinion, one of the biggest assets of Wing 101 is its great documentation, which includes a carefully planned tutorial, a user guide as well as help files. This is great considering it is mostly intended for students.
The program’s interface is actually quite similar to those of other IDE’s. Most of the space is devoted to writing your code, while there are some panels on the sides and the usual top menu. The same as other modern IDEs, it is allowed to work on different pieces of code by opening additional tabs. In addition, if you like personalizing your working environment, you will be glad to know that it lets you change the appearance of practically everything you can see on your screen.
As other IDEs, Wing 101 comes with some features to ease coding, including simple search for a given segment. However, its simplification for teaching purposes comes with a toll, because it certainly lacks a powerful editor with more professional features. Likewise, Wing 101 also has a graphical debugger to help you depurate your code from errors. Still, it is quite simple compared with others.
All in all, while the features in Wing 101 are probably enough for most programming students, it is likely that they will soon feel they need more and decide to move to a professional IDE. In this regard, there are other products of the Wing family that could fill the gap. Unfortunately, neither Wing Pro nor Wing Personal are free; so, it would be a good idea to consider their prices and features before making a decision.
v5.1 [Jan 25, 2015]
Support for Python 3.5b2
Added Step Out To Here to return to currently selected stack frame
Add syntax highlighting for Less and HSS CSS extension languages
Add default key bindings for the find-symbol-in-project command
Add a set_executable_bit command to set the executable bit in a file's permissions
Right arrow expands current node in the Project tree
Added show, focus, and prompt args to python-shell-restart command
Add show and focus args to python-shell-clear command
Optionally prompt before restarting the Python Shell (on by default)
Show rate at which data is being received in Debug I/O, Python Shell, and Debug Probe
Add Name Open File Set item to Open Files tool context menu
Add Ctrl-= as key binding for zoom-in and Ctrl-_ for zoom-reset in most keyboard personalities
Add Edit -> Zoom submenu
Added Show All Files in All Splits preference also to preferences dialog
Add documentation for Find Symbol in Project
Enable auto-fixups in the Python Shell and Debug Probe (e.g. x()y -> x().y)
Enable the auto-invocation auto-editing operation in the Python Shell and Debug Probe.
