I'm trying to take the next step in programming ArcGIS with Python and see if its actually possible to run my script/code without having to load ArcMap and paste them into the Python window. I imagine I would do this view some sort of IDE specific to Python that loads something from ArcGIS.
How would I got about doing this?
Update: Summary of the solution
I went the Eclipse + PyDev route. Here are my notes on installing everything and getting it working:
This is slightly confusing given all the different flavors that are available (Java, Java EE, C/C++, etc.). I went with C/C++ since that's what familiar to me. It doesn't really matter since PyDev gets installed after this step. Pick what you want.
PyDev will be installed via Eclipse. The instructions linked worked perfectly.
The above question gives a screenshot of a Windows configuration, while this link from an ESRI blog has more info for Unix systems although it is from 2008.
Ran a test script
Fired up a script I had been working on and it worked. There seems to be some differences in executing code in this way in how to access shapefiles and the workspace, etc, more explicitness is required. More to learn here.
Best Answer
I have just started to get to grips with Python and arcpy and I found PyScripter really useful. Its a full-blown Python IDE