2 Getting started

This chapter gives you a quick survey of the many options for installing and using Python and guides you through getting up and running with Google Colaboratory, a web hosted Python environment. Combined with the code for each chapter, available in a Github repository at https://github.com/nceder/qpb4e, Colaboratory is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get up and running with Python so that you can test out the code examples in the text and work through the labs and exercises throughout the book.

2.1 Paradox of choice - which Python?

As Python has matured, particularly over the past ten years, the number of options for running Python has exploded. After a brief survey of the versions, sources, devices, environments, and tools in the Python ecosystem, we’ll look at our recommended solution, Google Colaboratory and how to use it to run the sample code snippets in this book and to write the code for the lab exercises in most of the chapters.

2.1.1 Python versions

2.1.2 Sources of Python

2.1.3 Devices, platforms, and operating systems

2.1.4 Environments and tools

2.2 Colaboratory - Jupyter notebooks in the cloud

2.2.1 Getting the source notebooks

2.2.2 Getting started with Colaboratory

2.2.3 Colaboratory’s Python version

2.3 Writing and running code in Colaboratory

2.3.1 Hello, world

2.3.2 Dealing with errors in Jupyter

2.4 Using help and dir to explore Python

2.5 Using AI tools to write Python code

2.6 Summary