Nikhil Palanki

I've always been fascinated by the intersection between human phenomena and computing, specifically in fields of education, financial markets, and creative design. My programming interests are in machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural networks, cryptography, blockchain infrastructure, market making, simulation and modeling, and quantum computing. Outside of ByteRevel, I co-founded and spent four years working on a software consulting company, Quadral Apps (It's now defunct as the founders have all left). My interests outside of computer science are poverty alleviation, humanitarian engineering, education, financial markets and economics research.

Python Tutorial I – Background, Setting Up, and Hello World!

1 minute read

Setting Up

If you have a Mac, you are already good to go. All you have to do is open up Terminal, and type Python. After typing Python, you should see the following screen.

Just type “Python” and it’ll open up the Command Line

If you use Windows, all you need to do is go to the Python website, go to downloads, and download the installer. Then go to Command Prompt, type Python, and it should work just fine.

For other users, such as those of Linux, Solaris etc. There are Python builds for your system, also, but they are maintained by various Python enthusiasts. Their links are under Downloads » Other.

But, Joe Blabbah, Why are there These (»>) Junks on the Screen?

Your oddly worded question will be answered. Python uses “these junks” in the Terminal version of their programming. It shows the indentations required by the Interpreter to make the program work. In the future, if you use an IDE to write the program, the indentations will be automatically provided for you.

Hello, World!

This will be the shortest Hello, World! yet. In Terminal or Command Prompt, open up the Python interface. Then type the following:

print “Hello, World!”

And then hit enter. If you did everything correctly, it should look like this:

!!!

And now you are done!

Print

All the Print command does is print out whatever you put in the quotations. This is pretty self-explanatory. So if you want to make any other Python programs where all you do is print stuff, now you know how to!

IDEs and Stuff

If you are looking for a good IDE or Text Editor for Python, here are some good ones:

PyCharm

Developer: JetBrains

Cost: $99 (on sale as of the publishing of this article for $49)

 

Wingware Python IDE

Developer: Wingware

Cost: Free – $245

Active Python

Developer: ActiveState

Price: Varies

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