Python language
If you are brand new to the Python programming language, you first need to have it properly installed on your computer. To run a Python program, you will need a Python interpreter. If you try to install Python from the official page python.org, you are essentially just downloading an executable program that operates a Python interpreter and holds a large suite of useful tools and functions that you can utilize in your code. This is known as the Python standard library.
Please complete the whole reading before installing anything, as some parts highlight older practices and do not reflect the current way to install Python.
For the example image, the page usually picks up on the operating system of the computer you are using. If you are looking for a different format or a specific release version, you can manually search for it in the Active Python releases.
What are Python releases?
Python is community-based and open-sourced, meaning it is free to use, and anyone can participate in improving, maintaining and releasing their own libraries. This adds great functionality to the language but also requires the periodic release of newer versions, which helps to add these newer features and fixes previous bugs. All Python versions are formatted as A.B.C; the first number is a major release, the second one a minor release, and the third represents patches to fix bugs. For example, as of writing this, the current release of Python is 3.12.1.
So, which Python version do I need?
It is best to check the Python version that has fewer issues with the libraries and packages that you know you are going to need. For this, we will work with environments, which are little containers that will help you keep your libraries and Python versions running as smoothly as possible. But first, let's help you install Python on your computer.