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way better editor setup section
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‎README.md

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4. [ThinkPython: The way of the program](basics/the-way-of-the-program.md)
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5. [Variables, Booleans and None](basics/variables.md)
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6. [Using functions](basics/using-functions.md)
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7. [If, else and elif](basics/if.md)
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8. [Handy stuff with strings](basics/handy-stuff-strings.md)
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9. [Lists and tuples](basics/lists-and-tuples.md)
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10. [Loops](basics/loops.md)
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11. [Trey Hunner: zip and enumerate](basics/trey-hunner-zip-and-enumerate.md)
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12. [Dictionaries](basics/dicts.md)
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13. [Defining functions](basics/defining-functions.md)
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14. [Writing a larger program](basics/larger-program.md)
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15. [What is true?](basics/what-is-true.md)
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16. [Files](basics/files.md)
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17. [Exceptions](basics/exceptions.md)
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18. [Modules](basics/modules.md)
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19. [Classes](basics/classes.md)
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7. [Setting up an editor](basics/editor-setup.md)
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8. [If, else and elif](basics/if.md)
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9. [Handy stuff with strings](basics/handy-stuff-strings.md)
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10. [Lists and tuples](basics/lists-and-tuples.md)
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11. [Loops](basics/loops.md)
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12. [Trey Hunner: zip and enumerate](basics/trey-hunner-zip-and-enumerate.md)
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13. [Dictionaries](basics/dicts.md)
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14. [Defining functions](basics/defining-functions.md)
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15. [Writing a larger program](basics/larger-program.md)
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16. [What is true?](basics/what-is-true.md)
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17. [Files](basics/files.md)
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18. [Exceptions](basics/exceptions.md)
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19. [Modules](basics/modules.md)
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20. [Classes](basics/classes.md)
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### Advanced
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‎basics/editor-setup.md

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# Setting up an editor for programming
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An editor is a program that lets us write longer programs than we can
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write on the `>>>` prompt. Then we can save the programs to files and
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run them as many times as we want without writing them again.
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When programmers say "editor" they don't mean programs like Microsoft
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Word or LibreOffice/OpenOffice Writer. These programs are for writing
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text documents, not for programming. **Programming editors don't support
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things like bigger font sizes for titles or underlining bits of text**,
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but instead they have features that are actually useful for programming,
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like automatically displaying different things with different colors.
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If you are on Windows or Mac OSX you have probably noticed that your
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Python came with an editor called IDLE. We are not going to use it
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because it's lacking some important features, and most experienced
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programmers (including me) don't use it or recommend it to anyone.
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In this chapter we'll download, install, set up and learn to use a
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better editor. The setup part will take some time, but it's worth it and
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correct settings will help you avoid many problems later.
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## Which editor should I use?
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These instructions are written for an editor called Geany. Its default
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settings are actually not very good for writing Python code, but you
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will learn to change the settings so you won't have trouble with
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switching to another editor later if you need to.
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Different programmers have different favorite editors that they use, and
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the choice of editor is a very personal thing. You can use almost any
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editor you want if you make sure that you change its settings the same
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way we change Geany's settings in this tutorial.
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## Bad editors
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**[Skip this part](#installing-your-new-editor) if you are going to use
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Geany.**
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But some editors are not good enough for actually making something with
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them. These editors cannot be set up using these instructions because
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they don't have some of the features we need, so **don't use these
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editors for writing Python**:
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- Gedit
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- IDLE
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- Nano
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- Notepad
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- Pluma
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- Wingware
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On the other hand, some editors have too many features for getting
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started with programming. They are not bad, but they are not meant for
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beginners. So **I don't recommend using these editors yet**:
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- Emacs
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- NetBeans
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- PyCharm
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- Spyder
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- Vim
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These lists don't contain all bad editors, but these are editors that
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people often try to use. If you know a bad editor and you think I should
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mention it here, please [let me know](../contact-me.md).
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## Installing your new editor
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Installing Geany is easy. If you are using Windows or Mac OSX, go to
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[the official Geany download
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page](http://www.geany.org/Download/Releases) and click the correct
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download link. If you are using Linux, just install Geany from the
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package manager like any other program. For example, on Debian-based
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distributions (e.g. Ubuntu) you can type `sudo apt install geany` on a
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terminal.
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When you have Geany installed, you can launch it like any other program.
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By default, it has a big sidebar and bottom area, but we don't need them
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so you can start by dragging them away. Geany should look roughly like
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this after that:
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![Geany without the sidebar and bottom area.](../images/geany.png)
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## Dark background
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Geany has a white background by default, but we'll tell Geany to use a
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black background instead. Your eyes will thank you for doing this when
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you have been programming for a few hours.
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1. Click *Edit* at top and click *Preferences*.
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2. Click *Editor* at left.
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3. Click *Display* at top right.
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4. Check *Invert syntax highlighting colors*.
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5. Click *OK*.
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If you don't like the colors, you can install more [color
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schemes](https://github.com/geany/geany-themes/) and then go to *View*
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at top and click *Change Color Scheme*.
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## Opening and saving files
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Now it's time to create our first file. Geany creates a new file when
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you open it for the first time, but it doesn't know that it's going to
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be a Python file. We need to tell that to Geany by saving the file
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first. You can use the *File* menu at top or the buttons below the
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menus, just like in most other programs.
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Save the empty file on your desktop as `test.py`. The `.py` at the end
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of the name is important, it tells Geany and other programs that it's a
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Python file.
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## Automatic tab expanding
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Open a Python file in your editor. Then press the tab key, and the
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cursor should move right. Now press the left arrow key. See how the
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cursor jumps over the empty space? The empty space is actually a tab
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character, but Python's style guide recommends using four spaces instead
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of tab characters so we'll need to change Geany's settings.
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1. Click *Edit* at top, then click Preferences.
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2. Click *Editor* at left.
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3. Click *Indentation* at top.
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4. Select *Spaces* instead of *Tabs*.
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5. Click *OK*.
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6. Click *Project* at top and click *Apply Default Indentation*.
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Delete the whitespace, then press tab and press the arrow left again.
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Now the cursor should move one space at a time.
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**TODO:** animated gifs that show what's going on.
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## Stripping spaces when pressing Enter
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Press Tab and then press Enter, and Geany should add spaces to the new
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line automatically for you. If you are not using Geany, make sure that
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your editor does this too.
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Now press the arrow up and then move left and right. You'll notice that
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the previous line has spaces left over on it. Leaving useless spaces to
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ends of lines like this is usually considered bad style, but it's easy
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to tell Geany to get rid of them:
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1. Click *Edit* at top and click *Preferences*
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2. Click *Editor* at left.
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3. Click *Features* at top.
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4. Check *Newline strips trailing spaces*.
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5. Click *OK*.
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Press tab and Enter again. If you go back to the previous line now there
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is no whitespace on it.
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**TODO:** again, animated gifs
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## Maximum line length
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You have probably noticed that Geany displays a thin, green-ish line at
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right from where you type. The idea is that you should avoid writing
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anything longer than where this line is. Your programs will work if they
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contain lines that go past this marker, but it's not recommended because
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shorter lines are nicer to work with in general. People with small
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screens can work with your code, and people with large screens can have
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multiple files opened at the same time.
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By default, there's room for 72 characters before the marker. Staying in
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72 characters is not always easy, and that's why Python's style guide
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recommends 79 instead of 72. Let's move Geany's marker to 79 characters:
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1. Click *Edit* at top and click *Preferences*
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2. Click *Editor* at left.
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3. Click *Display* at top.
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4. Change 72 to 79.
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5. Click *OK*.
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## Running things from the editor
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This setting up stuff is boring! Let's write some code.
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We'll use this program to check if our editor is set up correctly.
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Create a new file and type this into it:
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```python
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import sys
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print(sys.version)
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```
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You don't need to understand this program yet, you'll learn what it does
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later in this tutorial. You can type this program on the `>>>` prompt to
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see what it does if you want to.
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Now save the program somewhere as `test.py`. It doesn't matter what the
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name of the file is, but it needs to end with `.py`. This way Geany
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knows that it's a Python file.
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Next we'll need to change Geany's settings so that it runs the program
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correctly. You need to have a Python file opened to change these
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settings.
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1. Click *Build* at top, then click *Set Build Commands*.
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2. The *Execute* command is probably `python "%f"`. Change it to
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`py "%f"` if you are using Windows and `python3 "%f"` if you are
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using Linux or Mac OSX.
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3. Click *OK*.
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Note that the first part of our *Execute* is the same thing [we type on
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a PowerShell or terminal](installing-python.md#running-python). Actually
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the whole command means "run this file using my Python".
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Now press the F5 key at the top of your keyboard to run the file we
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wrote. It should open up in a terminal or command prompt and print the
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same Python version as the `>>>` prompt prints when we open it. If the
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version starts with 2 it's too old, and you can [ask
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me](../contact-me.md) or some other experienced programmer for help.
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## Important notes
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Now your editor is ready to go. There are a couple important things that
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you need to keep in mind when reading the rest of this tutorial:
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- When a code example starts with `>>>`, type it to the `>>>` prompt. If
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it doesn't, create or open a `.py` file with your editor, type the
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code into it and run the file.
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- When we type some code to the `>>>` prompt it [echoes back the
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result](getting-started.md) [when it's not None](variables.md#none),
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but code in a file does nothing to the result. For example, typing
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`1 + 2` to the `>>>` prompt makes it echo `3`, but we need to do
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`print(1 + 2)` if we want to do the same thing in a file.
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## You're done!
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This probably felt like a lot of work, but don't worry, there will be no
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more things like this in the future. Now we have installed and set up
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all the tools we need and we can continue learning Python.

‎images/geany.png

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