A common question is, "What is the best IDE for doing Python development?" The short answer to this question is that the IDE choice doesn't matter very much. The number of development environments that support Python is vast and they are all very easy to use. The long answer requires a conversation about what attributes would rank an IDE as being the best.

The Spyder IDE is part of the Anaconda distribution. This makes it readily accessible to developers who've downloaded Anaconda. The IDLE editor is part of the Python distribution, and provides a simple environment for using Python and building scripts. PyCharm has a commercial license as well as a community edition, it provides a large number of features, and was used to prepare all the examples in this book.

The author makes use of having both an editor, an integrated Python prompt, and unit test results all readily available. PyCharm works well with the conda environments, avoiding confusion over what packages are installed. 

A search on the internet will provide a long list of other tools. See the IDE Python wiki page for numerous alternatives (https://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments).