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Python quickstart

Jay Sebastian edited this page Sep 8, 2016 · 1 revision

What is?

Python is a widely used high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

Installation

Go to the Python downloads page and find version 3.5.x (any number can be in place of x; the one I linked is 3.5.0). There are Windows and Mac installers available; Linux users should be able to take care of themselves. The defaults on the installers should be sufficient.

Multiple Pythons

It is possible to have multiple versions of Python installed on your computer -- everything is self-contained within the root folder that gets added to your machine. The main annoyance comes from trying to reference the right version of the python.exe when you want to run a script from the command line. What I did to get around this:

  • Make sure your Python root (e.g. C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python35) is in your PATH.
  • Rename (or copy) your python.exe to a file with a unique name, like python35.exe
  • Run program with new name, e.g. python35, from command line! No ambiguity.

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