Getting Started with Python Programming for Mac Users

Python comes bundled with Mac OS X. But the version that you have is quite likely an older version. Download the latest binary version of Python that runs on both Power PC and Intel systems and install it on your system.

Writing Your First Python Program

• Click on File and then New Finder Window.
• Click on Documents.
• Click on File and then New Folder.
• Call the folder CS313E. You will be storing all class related programs there.
• Click on Applications and then TextEdit.
• Click on TextEdit on the menu bar and select Preferences.
• Select Plain Text.
• In the empty TextEdit window type in the following program, exactly as given:

# File: Hello.py

print "Hello World!"

• From the File menu in TextEdit click on Save As.
• In the field Save As: type Hello.py.
• Select Documents and the file folder CS313E.
• Click Save.

Running Your First Program

• Select Applications, then Utilities and Terminal.
• In your Terminal window type ls and Return. It should give a listing of all the top level folders. You should see the Documents folder.
• Type cd Documents and hit Return.
• Type ls and hit Return and you should see the folder CS313E.
• Type cd CS313E and hit Return.
• Type ls and hit return and you should see the file Hello.py.
• To run the program, type python Hello.py and hit Return.
• You should see the line Hello World!
• Congratulations, you have run your first Python program.

Starting IDLE on Mac

• In a Terminal window, type python. This will start the Python shell. The prompt for that is >>>
• At the Python shell prompt type import idlelib.idle
• This will start the IDLE IDE

Using IDLE on either Windows or Mac

• Start IDLE
• Go to File menu and click on New Window
• Type your program in
• Go to File menu and click on Save. Type in filename.py This will save it as a plain text file, which can be opened in in any editor you choose (like Notepad or TextEdit).
• To run your program go to Run and click Run Module