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For absolute beginners, I'd even prefer something like this: 1. Hit install on Python and accept the defaults. 2. Install a simple text editor with syntax hig
by brownbat 8y ago
For absolute beginners, I'd even prefer something like this:
1. Hit install on Python and accept the defaults.
2. Install a simple text editor with syntax highlighting.
3. Open a file right on your desktop and type two commands in it and press F5 or something to run it.
Anaconda and Jupyter are great tools, but even they add complexity you don't need when teaching absolute beginners how accessible this can be.
Here's Python. It's installed. Tell the computer what you want to do inside a file. You understand text files and how to store them where you want, use your own conventions for that. Shove it in documents or whatever. We'll learn about project management and version control later, when you're writing programs more than 20 lines long.
- lgessler 8y agoYes, that might be what I would do if I did the workshop again. I still like Repl.it because I think the distinction between the REPL and the file/editor is much easier to grasp there than with IDLE and IDLE's REPL, but running code locally is necessarily going to be more reliable than running code on a remote platform.
- brownbat 8y agoRepl.it is a pretty neat solution too, don't get me wrong. And IDLE has always left me unimpressed relative to the terminal... but using Unicode on Windows, suddenly code pages get involved, which no one should ever have to know. There is a long series of subtle, unpleasant tradeoffs. Writing short Python scripts when I traveled with a Chromebook was messy, I leaned on repl.it as one option... It was super easy to dive in.
- jakobegger 8y agoThis is how I use Python. I'm not very proficient in Python, but it's amazing how quickly I can build simple services with it, despite it being a language I only use occasionally. There's so much stuff included in the basic installation from python.org. And it all just works. The only thing missing from the basic installation is psycopg2 for talking with PostgreSQL.