How to Download Python
For Mac Users:
Ok. The first thing you're going to want to do is to download the latest version of Python 3 from off of this website.
You have just downloaded a folder called something like Python 3.8 (the version number may have changed a little since I wrote this). Find this folder and take a look inside of it. You'll find a program called "IDLE.app". This is the main way I'll be having you interact with Python.
Next you'll be downloading a program called PIP. This stands for Pip Installs Packages. This lets you add on additional modules onto vanilla out-of-the-box Python. I've used some of these in my research. To download PIP, the first step will be to go to the pip.pypa website:
Once on their website, you're looking to click this button:
This will download a clever little Python file called "get-pip.py" which will actually download the PIP program from inside of Python. To run it, you want to take that file and drag it into IDLE (which we downloaded a moment ago).
Once you're inside the file look to the top of the screen. One of the menubar options is "Run". Go to that and select "Run Module". (Note: this is how you "press go" on a Python program you want to run.) When you do this, it will start installing the PIP program onto your computer. This will take a little while.
Once PIP has finished installing go to your computer's search function and search for a program called Terminal. The Terminal is a command line system that lets you control your Operating System and make changes. Open the terminal program.
To double-check we've downloaded Python, type in "python3 --version".
It should respond with something like Python 3.8.1
To double-check we've downloaded PIP, type in "pip --version".
It should respond with something like pip 20.0.2
Ok! Nice... Now that we have PIP up and running on your computer, type the following two commands into the terminal:
pip install matplotlib
pip install mpmath
Nice! When this is done, you're now 100% ready to download and run my python programs.
