Installing an Editor

and Running Your First Program

What Even Is An Editor?

You are going to type, run, and save your first computer program. Before doing this, you must install a code editor.

  • Programs are typed in using your computer’s keyboard, just as you would type in an email or text document. And just as the “thing you are typing into” is different for email and for text-editing, there is a different “thing” to type programs into.
  • The typing is one part of getting a program. If you just type your program, it will just be sitting there on your computer.
  • The next step is to run (or, execute, as we say) the program.
  • Typing and not-running is loosely analogous to typing an email but not sending it (the email will just remain in composed-form, but go nowhere).
  • Similarly, typing text into a word processor doesn’t mean it gets “published”.
  • The “thing” into which you type and run your program is called a code editor or an IDE (Integrated Development Environment, a mouthful).
  • We are going to give you the option of using one of two code editors, Spyder or Thonny.
    • They are applications that help you type and run programs.
    • There are other ways to type and run programs- but code editors make things simple.
  • Before we get to typing in a program, we first (if not already done) need to download and install Python and either Spyder or Thonny.
  • The term install means: you download software on your computer and get it to run. This is something you do just once. - When you need to run the software again, you search for it on your computer (since it’s already installed) and merely run it. - You will install Python and a code editor once for this course.
  • You will run the code editor many times.
  • If you start off with one editor and change your mind, you can come back here to install the other editor and learn how to use it.

Editor Installation

There are two choices of editor supported by this course: Spyder and Thonny.

  • Spyder is easier to set up, and is more compatible with the Anaconda distribution of data science tools that you may find yourself using in the future.
  • Thonny is a more beginner-friendly editor for users who are less comfortable with computers.

The choice is yours. If you aren’t sure, choose Spyder.

Select an option appropriate for your operating system, Windows or MacOS:

The course staff only support Spyder and Thonny. We cannot prevent you from using another editor, and ultimately your submitted assignments will not rely on the specific editor you use, however, we will not provide support for editor-related issues if you are not using Spyder or Thonny.

For this reason: we do not recommend you use any editor other than Spyder or Thonny.

  1. If you have a Chromebook or iPad, these will (unfortunately) not work for this course. You will need a full-fledged laptop (or desktop) computer. If procuring one is difficult for you, please speak with the course staff; the university has loaner computers available.

  2. If you are running Linux, install Anaconda.