Getting Started — Install & Run

Install Python: Download from python.org. Choose Python 3.x (never 2.x — it's dead).

Verify installation:

python --version
# or
python3 --version

Your first program:

print("Hello, World!")

Save as hello.py. Run with: python hello.py

Python interactive mode: Type python in terminal to enter the REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop). Test code instantly without saving files.

Recommended editors:

VS Code — free, powerful, best for beginners

PyCharm — full IDE, great for large projects

Jupyter Notebook — best for data science

Virtual environments: Always use python -m venv venv to isolate project dependencies. Activate with source venv/bin/activate (Mac/Linux) or venv\Scripts\activate (Windows).

Reference:

Wikipedia: Python

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)