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Meet Thonny, the Perfect IDE for Python Beginners
Stripped of distractions, packed with power
Do you want to dive into Python programming but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry. Thonny will guide you along the way. You don’t even have to install Python.
The process of setting up your environment can be a daunting task for a beginner, and talking to seasoned developers might make things worse. Is VIM really a good editor for beginners?
What a beginner needs is to write code, see what is happening, and get feedback. Everyone has to troubleshoot their code, but simple yet powerful visual feedback helps you learn more quickly.
Thonny is a simple IDE designed for beginners. See why your code breaks with the built-in debugger and an assistant that tells you what is wrong while also suggesting ways to improve. It’s a perfect IDE for learning.
Setting Up Thonny
Setting up Thonny is simple. At the time of writing, Thonny comes with Python 3.7 built in.
To get started, go to Thonny and find the installer for your OS at the top of the page:
Follow the installation process to install and launch it when you are done:
Thonny will greet you with some active UI elements — most likely the editor and the shell. Don’t worry, you can always change what UI elements you want visible in the view menu.
Keep it simple. Here are the panels I would suggest you start with:
- Shell: See what is executed when you run the code.
- Notes: Add your assignment notes here so you have everything in one place (or keep your pseudocode in here instead of in your editor).
