Getting Ready

Introduction

Writing programs gives you the power to control your PC.

Almost everyone knows how to use a computer, but few people take the next step and learn how to control it.

Programming makes you:

• More creative

• Think more precisely

• Analyse and solve problems logically

The essence of programming is problem solving. Think about your programming in Scratch last year. It was important that you understood the problem, you then had to explain the solution to the problem very precisely. This was called an algorithm. You then turned the algorithm (plan) into a program (coding).

DOWNLOADS

Python 3.10.2 (March 2022)

Python is developed by a community of programmers as free and open source software.

There have been several versions of Python. You need to install the most recent version, Python 3.6 on your computer.

Download for MAC

Download for Windows

Make sure that you get the right version for your computer.

Pycharm EDU

Pycharm for education is a fully featured Python Editor that has a run time window as part of the GUI interface with the editor. It colour codes your code as well as IDLE does, and also gives indications where you have written incorrect code or syntax errors before you run it.

Download for your computer

If you download to a school computer, then drag the program icon to the desktop, not to applications folder. It will work on the desktop, it won't allow you to add to the applications folder.