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Programming Historian

A curled-up snake

Python Introduction and Installation

William J. Turkel and Adam Crymble

This first lesson in our section on dealing with Online Sources is designed to get you and your computer set up to start programming. We will focus on installing the relevant software – all free and reputable – and finally we will help you to get your toes wet with some simple programming that provides immediate results.

Peer-reviewed

CC-BY 4.0

edited by

  • Miriam Posner

reviewed by

  • Jim Clifford
  • Amanda Morton

published

| 2012-07-17

modified

| 2012-07-17

difficulty

| Low

DOI id icon https://doi.org/10.46430/phen0009

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Available in: EN (original) | PT | ES | FR
This lesson is part of a series of 15 lessons - You are on lesson 1 | next lesson

Contents

Lesson Goals

This first lesson in our section on dealing with Online Sources is designed to get you and your computer set up to start programming. We will focus on installing the relevant software – all free and reputable – and finally we will help you to get your toes wet with some simple programming that provides immediate results.

In this opening module you will install the Python programming language, the Beautiful Soup HTML/XML parser, and a text editor. Screencaps provided here come from Komodo Edit, but you can use any text editor capable of working with Python. Here’s a list of other options: Python Editors. Once everything is installed, you will write your first programs, “Hello World” in Python and HTML.

the Python Programming Language

The programming language we will use in this series of lessons is Python, a free, open source language. Unless otherwise noted, we will be using Python 3 throughout. Version 2 is no longer officially supported, but you might still find it used in older projects or lessons. Python 3 has a few differences in formatting (think grammar rules), so beware if you find examples online that still use Python 2. They might not run under current versions of Python.

Backup Your Work!

Before you download or install any new software, it is crucial that you make backups of your work. You should back up your whole computer at least weekly, and preferably more frequently. It is also a good idea to make off-site backups of your work, so that you don’t lose everything if something happens to your computer or to your home or office. Sites like Jungle Disk and Dropbox provide easy-to-use and relatively inexpensive online backup options.

Choose Your Operating System

Step 1 – Install and Set Up Software

In order to work through the techniques in this website, you will need to download and install some freely available software. We have provided instructions for Mac, Windows and Linux. Once you have installed the software for your operating system, move on to ‘Viewing HTML Files’. If you run into trouble with our instructions or find something that doesn’t work on your platform, please let us know.

About the authors

William J. Turkel is Professor of History at the University of Western Ontario.

Adam Crymble, University College London.

Suggested Citation

William J. Turkel and Adam Crymble, "Python Introduction and Installation," Programming Historian 1 (2012), https://doi.org/10.46430/phen0009.

Great Open Access tutorials cost money to produce. Join the growing number of people supporting Programming Historian so we can continue to share knowledge free of charge.