Installing a Text Editor

It’s not entirely necessary (as you can use the IDLE) but a text editor will help you immensely when you’re entering code. A normal word processor inserts its own unique characters, paragraph settings and much more, so it’s not a good platform for Python code.

SUBLIME CODE

Sublime Text is an excellent, cross-platform text editor that’s designed for entering code. It has a slick interface, many features and performs magnificently. In short, it’s an ideal starting point.

 Step 1

Let’s begin by navigating to the Sublime Text webpage, to download the latest version for whatever operating system you’re currently running. You can find the website at www.sublimetext.com, together with a download button for the detected OS that you’re using.

Step 2

However, if you want to specify a particular operating system version, then click on the Download link found in the top menu bar on the site. This will open a page with links for the latest version for OS X, Windows, Windows 64-bit and Linux machines.

Step 3

Whichever version you choose, download the setup files and double-click them to begin the set up process. If you’re using Windows, which we are in this instance, then you see the standard installation wizard. The defaults will suffice, so go ahead and install the program.

Step 4

When installed, Sublime defaults to a black background and white text; whilst this is perfectly fine for most users, it’s not always the most comfortable viewing setup. Thankfully, there are countless themes you can apply by clicking Preferences > Colour Scheme. We’ve opted for IDLE in this screenshot.

Step 5

Sublime Text offers some excellent features over that of the standard Python IDLE. For example, enter the following:

print (“Hello everyone!”) This is an actual Python command, which will print the words Hello everyone! on the screen. Notice how Sublime automatically recognises this as code and places the quotes and parentheses.

Step 6

Soon, as you become more Python-savvy, you’ll find that the standard IDLE isn’t quite up to the task of keeping up with your code, alterations and injections of code mid-way through a long program. However, Sublime will keep you updated and you can even utilise indents easily.

Step 7

We’re not going to get too heavily into the code right now but an indent is part of Python programming, where a statement indicates that the following indented commands must be run until a particular event has happened; after which the indents stop. Pressing Ctrl+] will indent a line of code in Python.

Step 8

Sublime isn’t just for Python either. With it you can build code for a number of programming languages. Click on Tools > Build System to see which languages you’re able to build with in Sublime.

Step 9

Sublime comes with a number of preinstalled plugins for Python code, allowing you to experiment with your code in real-time. They’re probably a little bewildering at this point in time but you will likely find them useful as your Python skills increase.

Step 10

However, we recommend you use the IDLE to begin with. Although the Python IDLE isn’t as advanced as Sublime, it’s a perfect base on which to build your skills. Once you’ve mastered Python, and the way it works, you can move on to a text editor for the better features.

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