Which Eclipse package should I download for PyDev?

Which Eclipse package should I choose for Python development with PyDev?

Nothing on the Eclipse homepage tells me what to choose, and the PyDev documentation assumes I already have Eclipse installed. Does it matter which Eclipse package I choose?

If you just plan on doing Python dev, I'd just go with Platform Runtime Binary.

After that, I'd follow the instructions http://pydev.org/download.html and http://pydev.org/manual_101_root.html to install PyDev.

I use the same setup for Python development. I also have the RadRails plugin for Ruby on Rails development.

PyDev was acquired by Aptana, so you might want to check that one out as well.

Assuming Python, and nothing else - I would just get the "Runtime Binary" edition of Eclipse, and add the PyDev extension. That way Eclipse starts up lightning fast, consumes less memory and generally gets in your way less. On top of that, you can always add in whatever extensions/plugins you find you need. The runtime is generally around 50MB, instead of the usual 100+ for the SDK or other versions.

You can always find the latest version here:

http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/

At the time of this posting, that would be 3.6.1:

http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.6.1-201009090800/index.php#PlatformRuntime

If you are getting started, I would recommend you python easyeclipse.

Pydev can give some incompatibilities when using it together with other extensions.

A useful shortcut is to download EasyEclipse for PyDev. This is a version of Eclipse already pre-configured for pydev, and seems to be easier to install than gathering all of the Eclipse pieces yourself. Unfortunately it uses a rather old version of PyDev, but this is easily remedied by going to Help > Software Updates > and letting Eclipse grab the latest version (you'll need to change the PyDev location to SourceForge before doing this).