PyScripter reached 1 million downloads from Sourceforge

[pyscripter 689]

PyScripter, an Open Source, freely available Python IDE written in Delphi, has reached 1 million downloads from Sourceforge.  This is in addition to many millions of downloads from its earlier home at the now defunct Google Code and an unknown number of downloads from other distribution channels.

 

Historic note:

 

The initial motivation was to build a good scripting solution for Delphi applications.   About 20 years ago Microsoft was still promoting ActiveX scripting and Windows Script Engines (such as vbScript and jScript) as the way of building scripting solutions for Windows applications (one of many Microsoft technologies that was all but abandoned).  At that time Python was relatively unknown, but it so happened that it was available as a Windows Script Engine and I looked into it.  I loved the clean syntax, the expressiveness and conciseness of the language.  Other things I liked were duck typing, batteries included, strong object orientation (everything is an object) etc..   The first iteration was an IDE (editor/debugger) for ActiveX Script Engines.   But there were many bugs and limitations of Active Scripting both on the Microsoft/Windows side and the Python side.

 

I then came across Python4Delphi which at the time was maintained by a Canadian developer Morgan Martinet.    I started contributing to that project and later become its main maintainer, when Morgan's interested shifted to other things.  I also developed a simple Python IDE which was named PyScripter and was originally distributed alongside Python4Delphi.  There was very few Python IDEs available at the time and somehow the project became known in the Python community and instantly popular.   For me, developing PyScripter was just a hobby, but I received a lot of encouragement and kept on improving it.  I was also making some income from donations and Google AdSense.  Both PyScripter and Python4Delphi were later moved to Google Code.  Python popularity was steadily increasing and at the peak of PyScripter's popularity around 2010, there were hundreds of thousands of downloads the days following each new release.

 

More recently as we all know Python became one of the most popular programming languages, but at the same time there was strong competition to PyScripter from freely available commercial grade IDE's such as Jetbrains PyCharm and Microsoft's Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code.  PyScripter was almost abandoned when Google Code closed down due to my frustration,  but after a couple of years of inactivity the project was moved to Github and development resumed.  Downloads are available through Sourceforge, since 2016.  Through the years PyScripter has kept a large and loyal group of followers.   I get many comments along the lines "I have tried VSCode, I have tried PyCharm, but I keep going back to PyScripter".   PyScripter is also quite widely used in many Universities for introducing Python to students. 

 

And almost 20 years after its first release, PyScripter is still going strong...

Edited August 19, 2020 by pyscripter

[Guest]

I happy to read between your lines pride and satisfaction, having the rewarded feeling for your dedication with many hours.
Good work and keep it that way, and thank you for your hard work.

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

9 hours ago, pyscripter said:

Downloads are available through Sourceforge

Btw, GitHub offers binary downloads as well.

[pyscripter 689]

Just now, Fr0sT.Brutal said:

Btw, GitHub offers binary downloads as well.

True, but it is kind of hard to keep track of them (count, geographic distribution etc.).

[Rollo62 536]

@pyscripter

Sometimes Im wondering what made Python so popular in the first place.

Now I know, it was PyScripter IDE 

Edited August 21, 2020 by Rollo62

[Edwin Yip 154]

I tried it many years ago. I'll use it if I use Python, because I can customize anything with Delphi!

 

Well done @pyscripter!!

[pyscripter 689]

 

PyScripter has reached 1.5 million downloads.  This is just from Sourceforge and does not include downloads from Embarcadero, many other download sites and forks such as GuiPy.  What is quite satisfying is that there is no country in the world without downloads.  Greenland for instance, a vast country with a population of only 56000, has 7 downloads.

[shineworld 73]

IMO: Since my first Python code I've used many Python IDEs: Thonny, Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ for Python, etc, etc but PyScripter is a step ahead and my preferred.
Congrats on your efforts pyscripter.