Installing Python

Quick reference

• 00:04 Okay, so we've got our text editor and our Git bash terminal installed.
• 00:08 Now we just need Python.
• 00:10 So head over to python.org.
• 00:11 This is the official Python website.
• 00:14 And like I said, I'm on a Windows computer.
• 00:16 If you're on a Mac or Linux, you already have Python on your computer.
• 00:19 You may have to update it, but you're probably okay.
• 00:21 And we'll talk about that more in just a minute.
• 00:23 But for Windows users, click on this download button here and
• 00:27 you'll notice we're on Python 3.7.4.
• 00:29 If this is a different version number by the time you watch this video,
• 00:32 perfectly fine.
• 00:33 Just go ahead and download the latest version, as long as it's less than 4.
• 00:37 So programming languages have major updates between the big numbers,
• 00:42 the first number.
• 00:43 So python 3 point whatever is fine up until we get to version 4.
• 00:48 Then it's a major update, and it's likely going to be different.
• 00:52 As long as it's less than version 4, you're probably perfectly fine.
• 00:55 So go ahead and
• 00:56 click this and we can save this anywhere, I'm just going to save it to my desktop.
• 01:01 And when it finishes downloading, just go ahead and click this to run it.
• 01:04 All right, and this is the installation screen.
• 01:06 Now before we go forward, come down here to the bottom and check this out.
• 01:09 It says Add Python 3.7 to PATH, and it's not been checked.
• 01:14 We need to make sure that this is checked.
• 01:16 Very, very important,
• 01:17 it's probably the most important thing about installing Python.
• 01:20 And what this does is when you add something to a Windows path,
• 01:24 it allows it to run anywhere on your computer.
• 01:27 So we want to be able to run Python from anywhere on our computer.
• 01:30 And so we want to add it to the Windows path.
• 01:32 If you don't, and you leave it unchecked,
• 01:35 you can only run Python in the Python directory.
• 01:38 And that's no good, we don't want that.
• 01:39 So make sure this is checked.
• 01:41 Now if you've already installed Python in the past,
• 01:44 there's a pretty good chance you missed this little thing and
• 01:46 didn't check it because by default it's not checked.
• 01:49 And you just don't even notice it unless you're looking for it.
• 01:51 So you may want to uninstall Python and reinstall it, in fact,
• 01:55 you absolutely have to do that.
• 01:57 So to uninstall and reinstall, just do what we just did,
• 02:01 download Python, click the thing.
• 02:04 And if you've already installed Python,
• 02:06 the box that pops up will be different than the one we're looking at right now.
• 02:10 It'll say something like repair or uninstall, and so you can go ahead and
• 02:14 uninstall.
• 02:15 And once it's uninstalled, you can just run that same file again and
• 02:18 you'll get the screen we're looking at right here.
• 02:21 And you'll be able to add the path and move forward.
• 02:23 So once we've clicked this, come up here and click this Install Now, and
• 02:27 it's just very quickly going to install and it's pretty straightforward.
• 02:32 Now I mentioned Mac and Linux users already have Python.
• 02:35 In the old days, it used to install an old version of Python, so you had to upgrade.
• 02:39 These days, more recent computers, more recent Macs,
• 02:43 they come with a more current version.
• 02:45 And it may not be version 3.7, it may be 3.6, it may be 3.5.
• 02:50 As long as it's 3 point something, you're going to be fine for this course.
• 02:54 And so I just recommend that you keep whatever you have.
• 02:56 If you have version 2 point something, you'll need to upgrade.
• 02:59 So you'll just have to Google how to upgrade on a Mac and
• 03:02 you'll get a tutorial, there's probably hundreds of them, very simple.
• 03:06 It'll walk you through it, I'll just leave that to you.
• 03:08 I'll show you how you can determine what version you're running of Python.
• 03:12 Basically you'll just go to your terminal, I'll just show you right now.
• 03:16 And you type in python -v, and
• 03:18 it'll tell you what version you're running if your on a Mac.
• 03:22 You can do that for Windows too, but as long as it's above version 2,
• 03:26 as long as it's version 3 something, you're perfectly fine.
• 03:29 We're finishing up here, we're installing pip.
• 03:31 Pip is an installation program for Python.
• 03:33 It allows us to install other Python modules automatically, it's pretty cool.
• 03:37 Adding the path, and we're done, so that's it.
• 03:40 That's all there is to installing Python on Windows.
• 03:42 Very simple, very straightforward, and now we're ready to go.
• 03:45 So in the next video, we'll jump right in.
• 03:47 We'll fire up Sublime.
• 03:48 We'll fire up our text editor, and we'll start writing Python code.

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