This article is part of an ongoing series by Destiny and Gwen.
Welcome back to Computers Are a Science! In this article, you’ll learn how to download Python and find links to access helpful resources that will help you follow along with our next article.
If you’ve never heard of Python, you’re probably wondering what exactly it is.
Python…as in the Snake??
Python is a very popular programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Not only is it very popular, but it’s very powerful.
Major companies like Facebook and Netflix use Python, and sometimes web developers use Python for back-end development. Back-end code basically helps hold things together and creates APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
In the next article in Computers Are a Science: Introduction to Python, you can expect to learn about functions, loops, variables, debugging, and data types.
Now that we have all the important info down, let’s get started! These resources will help you start developing with Python.
Quick Tip: Talk to your parents before downloading new software. They can help guide you through the process if needed.
Software Instructions
To download Python, you’ll go to https://www.python.org and you should see a website that looks something like this:
Click on the blue download button that you see circled above. It will take you to a site that looks something like this:
Click on the yellow button that you see circled in the window above. We’ll be installing Python 3.10.0. Once you click the button, the setup wizard will begin to download. When the wizard is downloaded, go ahead and open it up. You should see a window that looks something like this:
You’ll want to click “Install Now.” If there is a page with checkboxes, you can leave them as they are and click next. Python will now install to your operating system. Finally, when Python finishes installing, you can simply close the window. You now have Python installed on your computer!
Additional Resources
Congratulations on installing Python! We’re just about done with the article, but there are a few helpful resources you can reference as you do your own Python development.
The first resource I would like to give you is W3Schools. It’s an online website that allows you to learn several different programming languages. It was very helpful for me to review some Python concepts to make sure I provide you guys with correct code!
The next resource that I would like to give you is our Computers Are a Science GitHub Repository. This repository is kind of like our help/exercise file page. You can install files on all of our Python subjects that we talked about, from functions to variables. We try to update it as much as possible so that you can get the help that you need!
The last resource that I would like to give you is our Computers Are a Science: Introduction to Python Question Form. This is where you can ask a question and we’ll try to get back to you ASAP. We also ask for some feedback on this article so that we can improve in the future!
Now that we have Python installed and you have some helpful links, stay tuned for our next article and visit our Computers Are a Science YouTube channel to know when we come out with videos!