GETTING STARTED WITH PYTHON
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO
You can download the latest version of Python throughout this website. If you chose to download please check with an adult that they are ok with you doing so. However you do not need to in order to learn how to code!
ONLINE PYTHON IDE
Instead of downloading python you can use an online IDE. IDE stands for an integrated development environment and they're very important part of coding. You can click here to go to the one we are using.
If you downloaded Python, you can type this into the shell (if you search for Python shell on your computer, it will most likely be the right thing).
FIRST LINE OF CODE
Time for the first line of code! We will start with a print statement. It is a tradition to have the first line of code you write to print "Hello World" to the terminal. The terminal in the online is the dark part of the screen the far right. You can think about it as the lighter section is the input and the darker sections is the output.
COMMENTS IN PYTHON
There is now an extra line of code! The first line is a comment describing the code. Comments are important when coding because it makes it easier for someone else to read and understand your code. In python you can add a comment by using a '# 'at the beginning of the line, as shown in the picture to the left.
MULTIPLE PRINT STATEMENTS
The computer will do whatever you tell it to, as long as your code is in the right format and language. Feel free to explore print statements. Remember that if you use a phrase that uses a single quote that you need to surround the statement in a set of double quotes, as seen in line 4 in the picture to the right.
