A good way to use Python alongside Sololearn

Question

Not a question I know, but this has really helped me a lot. I know Sololearn has an editor to write and run code built in, but because it is embedded into a web page it can be limited with what you can do, plus, sometimes testing snippets of code means I have to close my tutorial and open the built-in editor.

So here's what I do: I open up an offline Python 3 Shell window alongside my browser window when on the computer not the app. (either in the command terminal by typing "python" or "python3", or using IDLE - these methods allow you to hit enter and run code directly)

So some may think this may sound like cheating when asked for the output of a section of code, but I disagree - it can be if you only use the editor to get your answers, but I mean if you get a bit stuck with the code on-screen, manually typing it into Python is a great way of understanding what is going on - it has happened to me a few times, a sample of code, and the question is asking for the output and I've been baffled by just looking at it, then when typing it into the Shell I have understood it before I even hit Run!

This is also a great way to save the sections of code you are learning for later or offline reference - by using the editor and typing the full section of code then saving as a .py file

One thing this course doesn't cover in too much depth is getting Python running on your system, and the different environments you can code in, with Linux you get Python by default (terminal level I have to install idle) and on Windows you will have to manually Download and install it based on wether you have 32 or 64 bit system (On windows10 I have had to try a few versions of 2 and 3 to find ones that run smoothly) and this course of course is based on Python 3

Start here, with the main versions at the top, and if you have issues, maybe try a slightly earlier version.

https://www.python.org/downloads/

I am no expert but will gladly offer my help to anyone wanting to get Python set up on their computer

Answer 1

Adding onto this, if you dont have a computer and your device runs android (not sure if they have this app on iOS), then you can download QPython from most app stores commonly used.