I am just starting learning Pyramid using Pycharm.  I have been reading tutorials but unfortunately there don't seem to be many out there. 
My problem is that whenever I make a change to the source I have to run python setup.py install before I can test my changes. This step seems unnecessary and I am confused why this is the case.
I am developing in Pycharm on Windows. I would like to be able to change the code, restart the server, and see my changes reflected on the site immediately (skipping the distutils step).
You should remove all the installed bits in Python site-packages and run python setup.py develop to create a symlink (or .egg-link) to your project in site-packages, instead of the actual installed package. This should make your changes work as usual, without running install all the time.
Pyramid - I have to run python setup.py install before changes register