Computer programming in two minutes – Python

With Python you control your computer by using Python, a highly intuitive language!

0. Install Python language if you‘re on Windows, if it is not already installed.

1. Open Python (command line). (How? By running python or searching python.exe)

A command prompt appears.

>>> _

Hello World!

Tradition, python2: Enter “print “Hello World!”” and press Enter. You will have on the screen:

>>> print "Hello World!"
Hello World!
>>> _

Python 3: Enter “print (“Hello world.”)” and press Enter/Return. You will have on the screen:

>>> Print ("Hello world.")
Hello world.
>>> _

2. Select “a = 3” and press Enter/Return. In the next prompt type “print a” (or “print (a)” with version 3). You will have on the screen:

>>> a = 3
>>> print a
3
>>> _

3. Enter these commands (be sure to change the print by adding brackets for the code to be compatible with version 3):

>>> a = 0                  # Shift+Enter to jump to the next line
>>> while (a<4):           # opens a process (1), so ...
... a = a+1                # add an indentation (space) at the beginning to signify membership in the process 1.
... print "week" , a       # application to display "week" and a.
...
week 1                     # 1st result
week 2
week 3
week 4                     # etc., your program runs in a loop until a<4

4. Open a text editor, write ...

a = 0
while (a <20):
          a = a + 1
          print "week" , a , "2015"

... and save this script as *.py

5. Open your operating system's command line (eg: bash GNU/Linux, Mac OS X Terminal, or cmd for Windows), place the command prompt in the directory of your *.py file, display your *.py file in your command prompt and run it by pressing Enter.

Congratulations, you have written and performed your first script!

Translated from Wikibooks