I’ve never been a fan of Python as it always seemed like a ‘pretend’ language with its ‘indent’ based syntax. It never felt as solid as C#, C++, Java and the like, and has always seemed a bit ‘off’… but…

I’ve started using python for some utility code over the last couple of years as I wanted something that could be used by anyone and most people entering the industry nowadays have experience with Python.

Having used it for a while, I now realise that it has quite a few upsides. It is well supported and it’s pretty easy to get util content up and running in a short timeframe

So, if you’re using a Mac then you’ll get python 3 as standard now. If you’re new to Python then you want to use Python 3 as it’s ‘less dodgy’ than previous versions, however, the syntax has changed so if you need backward compatibility then beware!

On PC (Windows), you can easily install Python from the Microsoft store or, if you’d prefer, install it from a less dodgy supplier such as; https://www.python.org/downloads/

Whether you’re on Mac or PC, you’ll end up with something like the image below. As you can see, once you have python installed, you can just type commands and see them run. Usually, you would run scripts, but we’ll look at that next. This article is just about getting up and running.