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Getting Started With Python3

2 min read

I recently started the Full Stack Development Boot camp at PDX Code Guild here in Portland. Being completely new to Python development I needed to learn how to get Python on my machine and how to set it up for development with Visual Studio Code, my editor of choice. This post is a short guide on how to do so.

Installing Python3

macOS comes with python installed natively but as you can see it’s not Python 3.

python --version
# Python 2.7.10

Being that I’m on a Mac I will be using Homebrew to install Python 3. If you are unfamiliar with Homebrew please feel free to checkout my tutorial on YouTube.

brew update
brew install python

After installation we should now have access to python3 from the command line:

python3 --version
# Python 3.6.5
 
which python3
# usr/local/bin/python3

Setting up Visual Studio Code

For VS Code we will want to install two extensions Python and Python for VSCode. We can set up our editor for use the latest version of Python by pressing: CMD + Shift + P, selecting Python: Select Interpreter, and then selecting Python 3.6.5. Likewise we can choose our linter through the same process but selecting instead Python: Select Linter. I chose to enable pep8.

You should now see the following in your settings.json file:

settings.json
{
	"python.linting.pylintEnabled": false,
	"python.linting.pep8Enabled": true,
	"python.linting.enabled": true,
	"python.pythonPath": "/usr/local/bin/python3"
}

For more in depth setup you can go to the VS Code documentation here.

~ Cody 🚀
Technology
CLI Python VS Code

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Cody Brunner

Cody is a Christian, USN Veteran, Jayhawk, and an American expat living outside of Bogotá, Colombia. He is currently looking for new opportunities in the tech industry.