Installing Python and a Free Editor (All of It Is Free, I Promise)
Okay so here's the thing. This lesson is the least glamorous one in the whole course and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. We're installing software. Nobody's gasping today. But you can't type a single line of code until this part's done, so let's just get through it.
And before you ask: no, you do not need to buy anything. Not a subscription, not a "starter pack," not some fifty-dollar coding app for beginners that promises to make it easier. That stuff is a rip-off. Everything you need is free, made by actual professionals, and used by people who write software for a living. I've been doing this for years off the free stuff. So have they.
Part 1: Installing Python
Python is the language itself. It's the thing that actually reads your code and does what it says.
If you're on Windows: 1. Go to python.org and click Downloads. It should detect you're on Windows and offer you the right version. 2. Run the installer. There's a checkbox near the bottom that says "Add Python to PATH." Check that box. I mean it. Check it before you click anything else. This is the single most common thing people forget, and it's why Python won't run later and you'll think you did something wrong. You didn't. You just skipped a checkbox, same as everybody's first time. 3. Click install, let it do its thing, close it out.
If you're on Mac: 1. Same website, python.org, Downloads. It'll offer you the Mac version. 2. Run the installer package. Macs are a little more forgiving about the PATH business, but follow the prompts exactly and don't skip any screens even when it feels like nothing's happening.
To check it worked, open your Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and type:
`` python --version ``
If you get a version number back, something like Python 3.12.whatever, you're in business. If you get an error, don't panic, that's page one of figuring out why the computer hates you today, and we've all been there. Come to class with it and we'll sort it out together, or check that PATH checkbox again.
Part 2: Installing an editor
Python by itself just gives you a plain little window to type in. It's technically enough, but it's like trying to edit photos in Paint. You want a proper editor.
I use Visual Studio Code, which despite the fancy name is also completely free. Not free trial. Free. Made by Microsoft, oddly enough, and it's the one basically every working programmer I've talked to either uses or has used.
- Go to code.visualstudio.com
- Download for your operating system
- Install it like you would any program, next next next, done
Once it's open, you'll want one add-on. Click the square icon on the left sidebar (it's called Extensions), search for "Python," and install the official one made by Microsoft. This gives you nice coloring for your code and some help catching mistakes before you even run anything.
That's it. That's the whole setup. Python to do the work, VS Code to write it in. Total cost, zero dollars, same tools people get paid to use every day.
A word on typing versus copying
Once you've got this installed, you're going to be tempted, especially early on, to just copy code from somewhere instead of typing it out yourself. I get it. But don't. I'm firm on this one. Your fingers learn something your eyes skip right past. Typing it wrong, seeing the error, fixing it, that whole clumsy process is actually where the learning happens. Copy-pasting feels efficient and it's secretly the slow way.
This is basically how I taught myself loops, actually. Years ago I was obsessed with a board game and wanted to see every possible starting move laid out. Nobody asked me to build this. There was no professional reason. I just sat there one night typing out loop after loop until I had it generating every combination, and I filled about half a moleskin notebook with the output just staring at it like an idiot, feeling pretty good about myself. I didn't learn loops from a tutorial. I learned them from typing the same three lines wrong about forty times until they stopped being wrong. That repetition is the whole trick. It's not fast, but it sticks.
One honest opinion before you go
You do not need to be good at math for any of this. People hear "coding" and picture algebra, and it's mostly not that. It's closer to stubbornness and reading error messages slowly instead of panicking at them. If math scared you off in school, ignore that memory. It's not that class.
Before next time: get Python and VS Code installed on your own machine, run that python --version check, and if it doesn't work, don't fix it alone at midnight, just bring your laptop next class and we'll look at it together.