Downloading and Installing Python
The first thing you should do is download Python to your computer. While it is certainly possible to code online using something like Free Code Camp, most development will occur on your PC. As such, head over to Python.org, scroll down to the "Download" heading, and click on the latest version link. After that, it is as simple as selecting your operating system of choice (Windows in my case) and whether the interpreter will be 32 or 64-bit. (If you are not sure of what your windows machine can support, check out this link for some instructions on figuring that out)
Installation
After downloading Python, the next step is to actually install it. If you chose to download the zip version, you can disregard this section. However, do note that in order to successfully follow this guide you should have Python within your environment variables. You can find some instructions on how to do this here.
After launching the installer, select the "Customize installation" option. Uncheck the "py launcher" checkbox. While being convenient (it allows you to type things like
py myscript.py
), having multiple Python versions will cause the launchers to conflict, potentially misleading you when trying to debug code. If you don't have administrator permissions, uncheck the "for all users" checkbox, and then click next. Uncheck "Create shortcuts for installed applications," and select "Add Python to environment variables" and "Precompile standard library" options. You are technically free to leave the installation directory unmodified, but I have experienced issues with Python being unable to access the default directory do to lack of administrator privileges and henceforth always change the location to somewhere where I am certain of the lack of necessity for elevated permissions. After resolving the dilemma of Python's habitat, click on the "Install" button and wait for the success dialog. Congratulations! You now have Python on your machine!
Verifying That it Actually Worked
In order to ensure that Python has been successfully installed, do the following (See the next chapter for an explanation of what you are actually doing)
- Press windows+r
- type in cmd and press enter
- At the resulting prompt, type in python. You should now get text that looks somewhat like this:
Python 3.8.3 (tags/v3.8.3:6f8c832, May 13 2020, 22:37:02) [MSC v.1924 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
If you get output like "'python' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file," you need to edit your environment variables to include python within your path. See the previous section on how to do this. If everything worked successfully, you are now ready to proceed to the next chapter. Note that you must type exit() or quit() to shut down the interpreter.