First Steps with Python : Setting Up The Environment

Python is a beautiful programming language and the main key for its success is because is so easy to learn.  We strongly suggest to get familiar with Python choosing the approach that suit your pace of learning and programming such video-courses, books, tutorials, etc.

Programming it’s like any other technical ability that requires a lot of practice. You’ll need a very balanced mind set to master it like a martial art, where the best approach is keeping your enthusiasm and discipline at the same level and learn it day by day with a very simple and easy approach.

Don’t forget that a good book will be always more useful than any search engine, like a compass for pointing you in the right direction with the right perspective.

For more seasoned developers that have discovered Python after using Perl or Php or after more traditional language as C++ or Java, what is a usually seen as a myth or limitation such as indentation soon became a cornerstone to build simple and readable code. In fact, I’ve never met a programmer that used python that regretted his choice or not enjoyed using it.

So good luck with you Journey with Python. Let’s start!

Setting up the environment is a two or three step process according to your OS:

  1. Download the installer
  2. Install
  3. Launch the interpreter and check the version

Of course the first stop of your journey will be https://www.python.org/, we recommend to start Python 3 (https://www.python.org/doc/).

Now that your environment is ready, it’s time to start to write some code! Choose your favourite beginner path from any website or tutorial.  You will start playing with the python interpreter as a musician with his metronome!

As soon as you start learning new riffs or tricks you will find new songs or backing tracks. In few days you’ll install packages and create your collection of scripts and programs.

So the best advice is to create a baseline of your environment and trying to keep it pristine (clean and simple), virtually separate each project and to help us there is a package called Virtualenv.

So, what are you waiting for? Start coding!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.