Setting up python workspace on windows

Steps:

• Install Python.

• Install and IDE (Microsoft VSCode or PyCharm).

• Creating a virtual Environment.

In an enterprise environment, follow your IT administration teams instructions for installations. Like raising a ticket or incident.

Installing Python

• Navigate to https://www.python.org/?downloads, click on the sections highlighted in the below screenshot.

• Once downloaded, double click on the downloaded file and follow onscreen suggestions, choosing yes or ok.

• To verify if python got installed run the following command in a terminal python --version, it should return version details.

Installing an IDE

• Navigate to corresponding websites:

  • Microsoft visual studio code: Download Visual Studio Code - Mac, Linux, Windows

  • PyCharm community edition: Download PyCharm: Python IDE for Professional Developers by JetBrains

• Double click on executables and follow onscreen instructions.

• After completion you will find them in windows search or as shortcuts on desktop.

Creating a Virtual-Environment

Virtual environment's help in isolating python packages to be installed and restricted for a specific project. A virtual environment can be created and activated with couple of commands.

• Navigate to a desired folder where you want to place your project files.

• Open terminal at same location and run python -m venv .venv

• It will create a new folder named .venv

• To activate the virtual environment use .venv\Scripts\activate.bat

• The command prompt will change as shown below.

You can now open the projects in your favorite IDE and open terminal in IDE to work with a virtual environment.

Best Practice:

• Place all your project requirements in a requirements.txt file at root folder so it can be installed easily.

• To install packages from requirements.txt use pip install -r requirements.txt