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I am looking for some pieces of advices in order to accomplish a tiny task regarding Python. If someone would ask to provide a pic of a 'started interactive session of Python with your favorite editor with a Python script', what would you show to this person? Should it be a void script? How do you interpreter 'started interactive session'? How about your own favorite editor (I mean that you would suggest for Windows 10)?

Sorry for the triviality of my question,but I have just started with beginners' Python course

Just to make sure I am on the right way, if I have to submit to someone else a started interactive session and your favourite editor with a Python script, will be it sufficient to show the following windows as in the picture?

enter image description here

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3 Answers 3

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If you want to do interactive things, you probably just want to use jupyter notebook: https://jupyter.org/install#jupyter-notebook

You can always just type python at your terminal prompt if you have python installed, this will start an interactive session in your terminal, but jupyter is definitely easier to use once you get it set up.

Edit: regarding favourite editor, this is very much opinionated but I love sublime text. https://www.sublimetext.com/

Note that you probably would use one or the other: you would use a text editor to write scripts that could be run in a terminal, for example

# hello_world.py
print("Hello, world!")

then in your terminal

python hello_world.py

whilst you would use a jupyter notebook for example for quick experimentation or for demonstrating usage of your software to others.

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4 Comments

Ok. Thank you so much for replying back. By the way, since I am at very beginning with programming stuff and python usage, I am a bit lost when it comes to talk about these programs like Jupyter, through which enter commands and the python window itself (I mean the one that pops up once you click on Python item). I am not able to figure out so far which will be the difference by using this supporting tools (just like Jupyter)?
@mały_statystyczny You're welcome. I'm not sure what you mean by "I mean the one that pops up once you click on Python item" - what is this? How did you install it?
Hi, I've just installed it from the python.org site. By clicking onto the icon in the desktop, it pop up a panel where to strat with the sesssion (that was the screen I was reffering to). Just let me know if you need more details
may I some detail about your answer? if I type this command line (hello, wordl!) firstly in the editor, I would need just to copy it into a started python session and the task will be done, have I understood correclty?
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In terms of interactivity, you should really check out Jupyter Notebooks. It's industry standard for a lot of tasks, widely used and with great performance and support. Also, Jupyter has an in-built code editor than can be run via localhost in your browser.

However, for a code editor, I will never stop recommending VSCode. Huge game changer, light-weighted and with support for pretty much any language. Jupyter notebooks can be run directly from VSCode, and the latest features that Microsoft introduced in this regard make using Jupyter inside VSCode really easy and intuitive. Also, extensions are a positive point as well.

If you're only planning on programming with Python, maybe checking out PyCharm is also a good idea, but I have working mainly in Python for the past 3 years and I have never missed anything on VSCode, even though I've tried PyCharm several times.

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Thank you so much for your kind response. Maybe I would be better to consult some sources to gather information about these editors. Anyway, in terms of accomplishing this task, would I need just to type the other commentators have suggested above in one of these editors and copy that into a started ongoing session of Python (the one that I have installed on my PC), wouldn't I?
Jupyter notebooks are based on cells. You write a bunch of code in a cell, you press the play button and it gets executed. What you're talking about is opening an interactive Python session in the terminal, for which you do not need Jupyter.
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The simplest answer: go with the IDLE IDE, it comes bundled with Python by default. It starts with an interactive session, so you just type at the prompt (>>>):

print ("Hello, world!")

and your task is done, if it prints out your "Hello, world!" line.

In general, you start your python interactive session (python REPL, python terminal, python console, there are several terms for the same thing) and, since it's an interpreted language, everything you type in, Python will interpret and execute, if valid. Nevertheless, except for atomic examples, you'll want to use a code editor or IDE.

As a beginner, I'd avoid jupyter for the time being, it could get cumbersome. Stick with the default IDLE editor (you open a new file and type away) until you feel confident, then make the switch toward some editor or IDE that you fancy - Visual Studio Code is popular and has python debugger, vim is old as Bible, can run on a calculator, but it's a modal editor, best used with touch typing, Notepad++ is also good for coding...

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Thanks for kind suggestion. I would like to make sure to have understood correctly the task? Is the sufficient to open one of the editors you have mentioned (I was thinking abot this IDLE or Notepad++), type the command line you have suggested (print ("Hello, world!")) and then reporting/copying it into enviroment's version of Pyhton, installed on my PC. Have I understood correctly?
If you're on Windows, IDLE should be installed by default along with the Python interpreter. You just need to run it by clicking on the appropriate icon. When you run IDLE, click File >> New File, which opens the new file editing window. Type or paste the code you want to run in this window. Then, press F5 to run the code. More on IDLE here: docs.python.org/3/library/idle.html Tutorial on YT: youtube.com/watch?v=WIlQukiXs-E

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