Boston Python Workshop 8/Friday/Windows Python scripts: Difference between revisions

We are going to practice writing and running Python programs (often called "scripts").

# Start a new commandterminal prompt. See the [[Boston Python Workshop 8/Friday/Windows terminal navigation|terminal navigation on Windows]] instructions for the steps to do this. Recall that a terminal prompt will look like <code>C:\</code> and a Python prompt will look like <code>>>></code>. Make sure you are at a terminal prompt and not a Python prompt; if you are at a Python prompt, you can type <code>exit()</code> on a line by itself and then hitpress enter to exit Python and return to a terminal prompt.

# Navigate to your Desktop directory from a commandterminal prompt, using the <code>dir</code> and <code>cd</code> commands. See the [[Boston Python Workshop 8/Friday/Windows terminal navigation|terminal navigation on Windows]] instructions for a refresher on using these commands. Don't hesitate to get help from a staff member on this step if you need it -- it's a new way of navigating your computer, so it may be unintuitive at first!

and hitpress enter. Doing this will cause Python to execute the contents of that script -- it should print "Hello World!" to the screen. What you've done here is run the Python application with an argument -- the name of a file, in this case "hello.py". Python knows that when you give it a file name as an argument, it should execute the contents of the provided file. You get the same result as if you typed

at a Python prompt and hitpress enter.