Getting Started with Python
Make sure to install Python on your computer, preferably version 3.7 or later. You’ll also want a development environment (IDE) to write and debug code. For beginners, I’d recommend PyCharm and for more advanced users, try using VScode. Alongside these, you may want to install Notepad++ to add another tool to your toolbox of editing files and programs.
Warning
You may use notepad or whatever text editor you choose, but know that errors will be much harder to detect without a proper development environment. The hardest to detect being Tabs vs Spaces. If you use a mixture of tabs and spaces in python, your code will not run. Python much prefers spaces and IDE’s make the TAB key enter four spaces by default to avoid this issue.
You can run python without any of these tools by using the python command in the terminal.
This can be used to run a specific script using a command like python c:\folder\with\code\run_me.py or simply
opening the python console with python This is useful for testing small snippets of code. The same can be done
with the IDLE application.
Note
If your application of python is for statistics and graphing, similar to use of R or Matlab, you may want to consider using Jupyter Notebooks. Jupyter allows for sectioning of code for creating graphs and tables inline with markdown sections, allowing you to export your work as a neatly formed PDF.
Once Python and an IDE is installed, go to the terminal and run python -m pip install --upgrade pip
to update the pip package manager. If not already installed with your version of python, download pip by running
python get-pip.py in the terminal and attempt the previous command.
Note
Pip is a useful tool to extend the functionality of python with packages. Once installed, python packages can be
installed as needed by writing pip install <desired_package>. We will revisit specific packages at a later point.
After installing the package manager, go ahead and install these packages:
python -m pip install numpy scipy ipython jupyter lxml openpyxl pylint pytest pandas matplotlib seaborn paramiko requests sphinx sphinx_rtd_theme
Note
If you copied the DefaultProject folder and are using it for your new project,
there is a requirements.txt file in the project. you can run pip install -r requirements.txt to download
every package specified in the file. Installing the requirements.txt file is a common practice if you are hopping
onto an existing project and need to setup your environment.
Great! Now your environment is setup! If you have interest in setting up documentation for your project, advance to the Using Sphinx Documentation Tools page.