Mokka mit Schlag

Last Sunday, August 12, Peter Dorosh led the Brooklyn Bird Club on a trip to Jamaica Bay where we had a probable Long-billed Dowitcher. Short-billed Dowitchers are relatively common around here at this time of year, but Long-billed are much less so. The problem is that unless the birds are in breeding plumage or calling, they’re virtually indistinguishable. For example, despite the names some Short-billed Dowitchers have longer bills than some Long-billed Dowitchers. Unfortunately at the times of year when the birds come through New York, they are neither calling nor in breeding plumage.

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Zabulon Skipper, Poanes zabulon
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2007-8-18
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Digger Wasp, Scolia dubia
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2007-8-18
Credit to Troy Bartlett for the ID
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I’ve been working on a mixed language Python-Java project lately. Increasingly I find myself needing to trace into the Python code, and I miss the features of Eclipse when doing so. (Yes, I’ve installed PyDev. No, it isn’t very good.) Are there any IDEs out there that let me do more than syntax color the Python? Since my primary interest is in exploring other people’s code, what I’m really looking for are the browsing features of Eclipse’s Java support. In particular I’d like to be able to click a method name or variable and find out where that is declared. I’d also like to be able to click a definition of a function or class and get a list of references to that item in the project.

This functionality is easily available in Java, and it’s very helpful. Can anything out there in Python-land do this, or is this a place where a dynamically typed language isn’t so helpful? (How would you even know at compile-time which class will be bound to a variable?) I do notice that the Python folks I’m working with eschew IDEs in favor of emacs themselves. Is this the S.O.P for Pythonistas? or for that matter for all dynamically typed languages?

Three Sanderlings and a Semipalmated Sandpiper were acting like Purple Sandpipers, feeding on the rock jetties at Riis Park this past Saturday. They were surprisingly unskittish around people, as witnessed by these closeups.
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Variegated Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, 2007-08-12