Development Environment - Python Programming by Example (2015)

Python Programming by Example (2015)

1. Development Environment

1.1 Installation

Python is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Installation of Python application is easy. For Windows, Linux and Mac Platform, you download setup file from Python website, https://www.python.org/downloads/. Download and run it. Follow installation commands.

If you're working on Windows platform, you can run setup file and follow instruction.

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1.2 Development Tools

Basically, you can use any text editor to write Python code. The following is a list of text editor:

· vim

· nano

· PyCharm, https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/

· Intellij IDEA, https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/

· Sublime text, http://www.sublimetext.com/

· Visual Studio, https://www.visualstudio.com

In this book, I use PyCharm for development tool. Jetbrains provides community and Education licenses for PyCharm.

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1.3 Python Shell

After installed Python, you obtain Python shell on your platform. You can type this command on Terminal or Command Prompt for Windows Platform.

python

This is Python 2.x. Then, you get Python shell, shown in Figure below.

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If you installed Python 3.x, you can Python shell by typing this command.

python3

This is Python 3.x. Then, you get Python shell, shown in Figure below.

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Output program on Windows platform.

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After you call Python shell, you obtain the shell. It shows >>> on Terminal.

Try to do the following command.

>>> a = 3

>>> b = 5

>>> print a

>>> c = a * b

>>> print c

In Python 3.x, print a is replaced by print(a).

The following is a sample output of program.

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A sample output for Windows platform.

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1.4 Running Python Application from Files

You can run your program by writing them on a file. For instance, you create a file, called ch01_01.py, and write this script.

print('hello world from python')

To run the program, you can type this command on Terminal.

python ch01_01.py

If you want to run the program under Python 3.x, type this command on Terminal.

python3 ch01_01.py

Program output:

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