Getting Started with Python

“All you need is a simple text editor, a shell, and Python” according to Zed Shaw.

Overview

Zed Shaw’s Learn Python 3 The Hard Way recommends that beginners avoid using an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). However, his favourite text editor, atom, no longer exists. Notepad++ gives a minimalist text editor with few distractions.

This is a setup that works on a windows machine running Windows10:

• Notepad++
• PowerShell
• Python 3

Create a new directory

You can make a new directory in the PowerShell terminal using the mkdir (Make Directory) command:

mkdir mynewproject 

Switch between programs using a mouse

The other thing to learn is switching between open programs without using a mouse:

CTRL+ALT+TAB 

Create a new python file

In Notepad, we can open a new document using:

CTRL+N 

We can change the language to Python using:

ALT+L  >  P  >  ↑ 

(The up arrow takes you from the top of the list to Python, which is at the bottom of the list).

We can now save the python file with Notepad++ :

CTRL+S  >  helloworld.py 

Write some code

We can now write some fairly sophisticated code in the text editor, but we can just demonstrate the classic “hello world” here:

""" Demonstrate that our setup works by printing 'hello world' """ 

print("Hello World") 

We can now run our program in the terminal.

Navigate to project directory

In the PowerShell terminal we navigate to the new directory using the cd (Change Directory) command:

cd mynewproject 

Run the script

We can now run the script in the terminal:

python helloworld.py 

This prints the message:

Hello World 

QED

© Adam Heinz

9 January 2023