Learning Python-the third chapter

How You Run Programs
OK, it’s time to start running some code. Now that you have a handle on the program execution（执行） model, you’re finally ready to start some real Python programming. At this point（从这一点上）, I’ll assume（假定为） that you have Python installed on your computer; if you don’t, see the start of the prior（先前的） chapter（章节） and Appendix A for installation and configuration（结构） hints（提示） on various platforms. Our goal here is to learn how to run Python program code.
There are multiple（多样的） ways to tell Python to execute the code you type. This chapter discusses all the program launching techniques in common use today. Along the way, you’ll learn how to both type code interactively, and how to save it in files to be run as often as you like in a variety of ways: with system command lines, icon clicks（图标点击）, module imports（进口模块）, exec calls（执行调用), menu options（菜单选项） in the IDLE GUI, and more.
As for the previous chapter, if you have prior（先前的） programming experience and are anxious to start digging into Python itself, you may want to skim（浏览） this chapter and move on to Chapter 4. But don’t skip this chapter’s early coverage of preliminaries and conventions（协定）, its overview （概要）of debugging techniques, or its first look at module imports—a topic essential（本质的） to understanding Python’s program architecture（格局）, which we won’t revisit until a later part. I also encourage you to see the sections（部分） on IDLE and other IDEs, so you’ll know what tools are available when you start developing more sophisticated(久经世故的 ) Python programs.
The Interactive Prompt（交互提示符）
This section gets us started with interactive coding basics. Because it’s our first look at running code, we also cover some preliminaries here, such as setting up a working directory and the system path, so be sure to read this section first if you’re relatively new to programming. This section also explains some conventions used throughout the book, so most readers should probably take at least a quick look here.
Starting an Interactive Session
Perhaps the simplest way to run Python programs is to type them at Python’s interactive command line（交互式命令行）, sometimes called the interactive prompt. There are a variety of ways to start this command line: in an IDE, from a system console（控制台）, and so on. Assuming the interpreter is installed as an executable（执行的） program on your system, the most platform-neutral （平台无关的）way to start an interactive interpreter session is usually just to type python at your operating（操作的） system’s prompt（提示）without any arguments（参数）. For example:

% python
    Python 3.3.0 (v3.3.0:bd8afb90ebf2, Sep 29 2012, 10:57:17) [MSC v.1600 64 bit ...
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> ^Z

Typing the word “python” at your system shell prompt like this begins an interactive Python session(会话); the “%” character at the start of this listing stands for a generic（通用的） system prompt in this book—it’s not input that you type yourself. On Windows, a Ctrl-Z gets you out of this session; on Unix, try Ctrl-D instead.
The notion of a system shell prompt is generic, but exactly how you access it varies by platform:
• On Windows, you can type python in a DOS console window—a program named cmd.exe and usually known as Command Prompt. For more details（详细的） on starting this program, see this chapter’s sidebar “Where Is Command Prompt on Windows?” on page 45.
• On Mac OS X, you can start a Python interactive interpreter by double-clicking on Applications→Utilities→Terminal, and then typing python in the window that opens up.
• On Linux (and other Unixes), you might type this command in a shell or terminal window (for instance, in an xterm or console running a shell such as ksh or csh).
• Other systems may use similar or platform-specific devices. On handheld devices, for example, you might click the Python icon in the home or application window to launch an interactive session.
On most platforms, you can start the interactive prompt in additional（附加的） ways that don’t require typing a command, but they vary per platform even more widely:
• On Windows 7 and earlier, besides typing python in a shell window, you can also begin similar interactive sessions by starting the IDLE GUI (discussed later), or by selecting the “Python (command line)” menu option from the Start button menu for Python, as shown in Figure 2-1 in Chapter 2. Both spawn a Python interactive prompt with the same functionality obtained with a “python” command.
• On Windows 8, you don’t have a Start button (at least as I write this), but there are other ways to get to the tools described in the prior bullet, including tiles, Search, File Explorer（文件资源管理器）, and the “All apps” interface（接口） on the Start screen. See Appendix A for more pointers on this platform.
• Other platforms have similar ways to start a Python interactive session without typing commands, but they’re too specific to get into here; see your system’s documentation for details. Anytime you see the >>> prompt, you’re in an interactive Python interpreter session—you can type any Python statement or expression here and run it immediately. We will in a moment, but first we need to get a few startup details sorted out to make sure all
readers are set to go.

Where Is Command Prompt on Windows?
So how do you start the command-line interface on Windows? Some Windows readers already know, but Unix developers and beginners may not; it’s not as prominent as terminal or console windows on Unix systems. Here are some pointers on finding your Command Prompt, which vary slightly per Windows version.

On Windows 7 and earlier, this is usually found in the Accessories section of the Start→All Programs menu, or you can run it by typing cmd in the Start→Run… dialog box or the Start menu’s search entry field. You can drag out a desktop shortcut to get to it quicker if desired.

On Windows 8, you can access Command Prompt in the menu opened by right-clicking on the preview in the screen’s lower-left corner; in the Windows System section of the “All apps” display reached by right-clicking your Start screen; or by typing cmd or command prompt in the input field of the Search charm pulled down from the screen’s upper-right corner. There are probably additional routes, and touch screens offer sim- ilar access. And if you want to forget all that, pin it to your desktop taskbar for easy access next time around.

These procedures are prone to vary over time, and possibly even per computer and user. I’m trying to avoid making this a book on Windows, though, so I’ll cut this topic short here. When in doubt, try the system Help interface (whose usage may differ as much as the tools it provides help for!).

The System Path
When we typed python in the last section to start an interactive session, we relied on（依赖于） the fact that the system located （系统定位）the Python program for us on its program search path. Depending on your Python version and platform, if you have not set your system’s PATH environment variable （环境变量）to include Python’s install directory, you may need to replace the word “python” with the full path to the Python executable（执行） on your machine. On Unix, Linux, and similar, something like /usr/local/bin/python or /usr/bin/python3will often suffice（通常就足够了）. On Windows, try typing C:\Python33\python(for version 3.3):

c:\code> c:\python33\python
Python 3.3.0 (v3.3.0:bd8afb90ebf2, Sep 29 2012, 10:57:17) [MSC v.1600 64 bit ...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^Z

Alternatively(另外), you can run a “cd” change-directory command to go to Python’s install directory before typing python —try the cd c:\python33 command on Windows, for
example:

c:\code> cd c:\python33 
c:\Python33> python
Python 3.3.0 (v3.3.0:bd8afb90ebf2, Sep 29 2012, 10:57:17) [MSC v.1600 64 bit ...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^Z

But you’ll probably want to set your PATH eventually, so a simple “python” suffices（足够了 ）. If you don’t know what PATH is or how to set it, see Appendix A—it covers environment variables like this whose usage （用法）varies（使多样化） per platform, as well as Python command-line arguments（参数） we won’t be using much in this book. The short story for Windows users: see the Advanced settings （高级设置）in the System entry（系统入口） of your Control Panel（控制面板）. If you’re using Python 3.3 and later, this is now automatic（自动） on Windows, as the next section（部分） explains.

New Windows Options in 3.3: PATH, Launcher

The foregoing section and much of this chapter at large describe the generic state of play for all 2.X and 3.X Pythons prior to version 3.3. Starting with Python 3.3, the Windows installer has an option to automatically add Python 3.3’s directory to your system PATH , if enabled（使能够） in the installer’s windows. If you use this option, you won’t need to type a directory path or issue a “cd” to run python commands as in the prior section. Be sure to select this option during the install if you want it, as it’s currently disabled （目前禁用）by default. More dramatically, Python 3.3 for Windows ships with and automatically installs the new Windows launcher—a system that comes with new executable（执行的） programs, py with a console（控制台） and pyw without, that are placed in directories on your system path, and so may be run out of the box without any PATH configurations, change-directory commands, or directory path prefixes（把…放在前头）:

c:\code> py
Python 3.3.0 (v3.3.0:bd8afb90ebf2, Sep 29 2012, 10:57:17) [MSC v.1600 64 bit ...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^Z

c:\code> py −2
Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:24:47) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] ...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^Z

c:\code> py −3.1
Python 3.1.4 (default, Jun 12 2011, 14:16:16) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] ...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^Z

As shown in the last two commands here, these executables（可执行文件） also accept Python version（版本） numbers on the command line (and in Unix-style #! lines at the top of scripts, as discussed later), and are associated（相关的） to open Python files when clicked（进行顺利） just like the original（最初的） python executable—which is still available（有用的） and works as before, but is somewhat superseded by the launcher’s new programs.

The launcher is a standard part of Python 3.3, and is available standalone for use with other versions. We’ll see more on this new launcher in this and later chapters, including a brief look at its #! line support here. However, because it is of interest only to Windows users, and even for this group is present only in 3.3 or where installed separately, I’ve collected almost all of the details about the launcher in Appendix B.

If you’ll be working on Windows under Python 3.3 or later, I suggest taking a brief detour（使绕道） to that appendix（附录） now, as it provides an alternative（选择）, and in some ways better, way to run Python command lines and scripts. At a base level, launcher users can type py instead of python in most of the system commands shown in this book, and may avoid some configuration（结构） steps. Especially on computers with multiple（多样的） Python versions, though, the new launcher gives you more explicit（明确的） control over which Python
runs your code.

Where to Run: Code Directories（运行：代码目录）

Now that I’ve started showing you how to run code, I want to say a few words up front about where to run code. To keep things simple, in this chapter and book at large I’m
going to be running code from a working directory (a.k.a. folder) I’ve created on my Windows computer called C:\code—a subdirectory at the top of my main drive. That’s where I’ll start most interactive sessions, and where I’ll be both saving and running most script files（脚本文件）. This also means the files that examples will create will mostly show up in this directory. If you’ll be working along, you should probably do something similar before we get started. Here are some pointers if you need help getting set up with a working directory
on your computer:
• On Windows, you can make your working code directory in File Explorer or a Command Prompt window. In File Explorer, look for New Folder, see the File menu, or try a right-click. In Command Prompt, type and run a mkdir command, usually after you cd to your desired parent directory (e.g., cd c: and mkdir code ). Your working directory can be located wherever you like and called whatever you wish, and doesn’t have to be C:\code (I chose this name because it’s short in prompts). But running out of one directory will help you keep track of your work and simplify some tasks. For more Windows hints, see this chapter’s sidebar on Command Prompt, as well as Appendix A.
• On Unix-based systems (including Mac OS X and Linux), your working directory might be in /usr/home and be created by a mkdir command in a shell window or file explorer GUI specific to your platform, but the same concepts apply. The Cyg-win Unix-like system for Windows is similar too, though your directory names may vary (/home and /cygdrive/c are candidates). You can store your code in Python’s install directory too (e.g., C:\Python33 on Windows) to simplify some command lines before setting PATH , but you probably shouldn’t—this is for Python itself, and your files may not survive a move or uninstall.
Once you’ve made your working directory, always start there to work along with the examples in this book. The prompts in this book that show the directory that I’m
running code in will reflect my Windows laptop’s working directory; when you see C:\code> or % , think the location and name of your own directory.