The first step into programming is to get Python installed on your computer. You will need two things
- Python itself
- a text editor
A convenient way to install Python, an editor and many additional packages in one go is Anaconda, a Python distribution with many pre-installed packages for scientific applications.
After installing, you will need to launch the Spyder editor from the Start menu.
- Python 3 - the standard Python installation
- Idle - a standard editor installed with Python by default.
- Atom
- PyCharm - a professional Python development environment capable of handling large projects. You won't need most of the functionality for a long time, but it is a well-written editor.
- vim - a console-based text editor for Unix systems. The tool of choice for many system administrators.
Which text editors are installed on your system?
Which Python version are you running?