Instructor: Chizaram Igolo
Prologue: Introduction to Tools
Tools: Python CLI & Python IDLE, PyCharm, Anaconda & Jupyter NoteBook
Resource(s): Python’s Official Documentation (https://docs.python.org)
We'll begin by installing the Python compiler† software which contains Python CLI and Python IDLE:
Step 1: Install Python by going to https://www.python.org. Hover on the Downloads tab and click on the Python 3.8.5 button.
Step 2: Go to your Downloads folder and run the executable. Leave the defaults and click Next till Finish.
Step 3: Press Windows Key + R to open up the Run prompt at the bottom left corner of the windows screen. Type in "cmd" without the quotes and press Enter.
Step 4: In the now open command prompt, type in python and press Enter. This should launch the interpreter; a prompt, while displaying at the top, the version of Python installed, current time and date as well as a few other system related information which you shouldn't worry about for now.
Step 5: Type in print("Hello World!") and press Enter. You just interacted with the Python Interpreter; you gave it a command and it interpreted it and gave you an output. Think of the interpreter as a server that takes yours orders at a restaurant and brings you your meal. Now give some space by pressing Enter twice and type in import this and watch what happens. The output you see is know as the "Zen of Python", you can think of it as the entire philosophy of Python put in beautiful prose. Python is about simplicity. Python is as close as possible to the English language that humans speak and understand.
Congratulations! You just installed Python and wrote your first program in 5 steps!
As we progress in the course, we'll familiarize ourselves with the other tools.
† Strictly speaking, Python does not merely compile but rather does both interpretation and compilation of code before running it depending on if you are using the interpreter or compiler. A compiler converts the entire program you write to machine understandable code before it is attempted by the computer while an interpreter converts the program line by line to machine understandable code before it is run. Python started out as an interpreter but evolved to do both so this would make it a compiler-interpreter language.