Introduction to Python

Python is an easy-to-learn language and today I will teach you how to use it.

NOTE : The tutorial assumes you know how to do intermediate computer stuff I never used a Mac and I don't usually use Linux, so feel free to ask google what I didn't cover.

Important credits before we begin

This tutorial was made with the intent of teaching people python, share it as you will , but remember that the author's discord is [REDACTED] and feel free to ask me questions. Cheers for reading

UPDATE: This tutorial was originally wrote in 2017. In august 2025 I decided to update it to fix grammatical mistakes and informational mistakes. I decided to keep it since I believe it is still beginner friendly and I want to pursue a bit more the path of making tutorials.

Why Python?

Short answer : because it's easy and it can do a LOT of things even when if other languages can do a lot of things easier

Python is the BEST language currently for machine learning

Python Versions

As the time of updating this, python 3.14 is in pre-release. Stick to the latest stable version, or 1-2 versions behind if using certain libraries and need compatibility. I personally run 3.11 a lot

Gettin' started

To use python we'll have to install it. We'll install 3.13 (or whichever is latest)

Installation process [Windows]

The installation is pretty straightforward : go to https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ then get any 3.13 version using the executable installer or web-based installer. Both are good (executable comes with all the downloadable files, web-based instead downloads python files only when you run the installer)

If you have 32 bit windows , take the Windows x86 instead of Windows x86-64

After you download it , just run it and check the option "Add Python 3.13 to PATH" (This will make this python the system default python and it will help us later when we are going to install packages)

Installation Process [Mac and Linux]

Mac installation

On mac: https://www.python.org/downloads/mac-osx/ The process is really straightfoward and if you have 32 bit OS , get the 32 bit version [same for 64 bit] If you don't know if you have 32bit or 64bit just read this : https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/12666/how-to-check-whether-my-intel-based-mac-is-32-bit-or-64-bit (or a newer post)

Linux installation

Linux usually comes with the python installed and you can check it by typing :

python3 --version

For the purpose of this tutorial, it can be any version, but to get 3.13 specifically you can do

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3.13

on Fedora the command should be sudo yum install python3.13

First Lines in Python

Writing python code right now can be pretty messy since you have no IDE. Will explain later what an IDE is For now, make a folder where you will store all your python files, then make a text document (name doesn't matter) . Click on the 'FILE' button then click on 'SAVE AS' after that, a window will pop-up and will ask you where to put it , the folder the text document is in should already be selected. Now all you have to do is to change the type of the file by clicking on the 'Text documents (*.txt)' and then choosing 'ALL FILES' Then you will have to add .py to the file name so it will become a python file, then just save it.

I don't know the exact way of doing this on Mac or Linux , but you basically have to get a random blank file then save it with the .py extension and that's all

Now to open up the default editor that comes with the python installation (on windows at least): just right click the .py file then one of the first options will be 'edit with IDLE' and then choose the 64 bit option if you have it (otherwise choose 32 bit option)

On Linux you should have a program called TEXT EDITOR that can be used as IDLE for this task On Mac you should have a program called TextEdit that can be used as IDLE

Any code that you will put in this file (that was opened trough IDLE) will require CTRL+S to save and F5 to run ANYTHING that you will write there.

Try to write the code from the tutorial without copy pasting because it helps you to memorize the syntax and understand it better

Now type there print("Oh hi Mark"), then just press CTRL+S to save it and F5 to run it. As you can see a shell poped out and it said some basic system info and then it ran the script in a SHELL

Good job! You've just created a program that will output "Oh hi Mark" every time it's being run.

Practice makes perfect

Now before continuing try to put other words in the print function and try to get it running (I suggest the word 'word')

If you get a syntax error after rewriting and running , try to see what you did different and don't worry if it is confusing right now, we will talk about the PRINT function soon

If you practiced as it was before asked , you can now proceed to the next tutorial and keep up the good work!