1.1 The development environment
If you work with Python you don’t really need you don’t actually need a development environment as in other programming languages.
Here you can use a normal editor to create programs in Python.
As a beginner, however, it makes sense to use a development environment, as these usually include some features that the normal features that the normal editors do not come with.“
1.2 Hello World
If you have already worked with other programming languages, then you know that a programming tutorial always begins with the script ‚Hello, World‘. This trivial little script is not only intended to prepare you for upcoming programming techniques, but actually serves to check whether the interpreter can work with the can work with the written text.
Don’t be afraid of the terminal.
If you have already worked with other programming languages, you are used to the fact that all work can be can be done in a graphical user interface. This is not 100% true in Python.
You can edit the Python code in a modern editor or in a pure Python development environment, many administrative steps must done in the terminal or in Windows in cmd.exe or the PowerShell. It will show you all the necessary steps in the course of the book.
1.2.1 Working with the Python shell
A special feature of Python is that you can not only create and execute programs in the traditional way of creating and executing programs, but you can also execute individual instructions can also be executed. In Linux and MacOS, this is done by starting the terminal with the command „python3“.
In Windows, open a command window (Windows key + R, then enter cmd.exe in the search field and confirm with Enter) or the PowerShell (Windows key + R and enter Powershell.exe in the search window and confirm with Enter ) and execute the command „python“.
In all cases, you will now be taken to the command interpreter, which is often referred to as the shell. In PyCharm you can switch directly to the ‚Python- Console‘ in the lower area in order to be able to enter the corresponding commands there.