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Let's learn how to use workspaces to run an existing script
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New Terms
script - The file we are writing that the Python interpreter will use.
interpreter - The program that will read and execute our script.
console - This is a tool that sends low level commands to your Operating System (macOS / Windows / Linux).
We used the ls command to list files in the current directory. The ~/workspace folder is the same as appears in the file browser.
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All right, so
let's get your Workspace open,
0:00
remember Workspaces is your online
coding environment, it's web based.
0:02
So you can code from anywhere, on any
computer with an internet connection.
0:06
Now I recommend that you also
have a physical keyboard,
0:10
coding on a tablet is a bit of a bummer.
0:12
I've attached a Workspace for this video.
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You should see a button
that says launch workspace.
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Go ahead and give that a click.
0:19
All right, welcome to Workspaces.
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This is all yours.
0:23
So over here we'll see a list of files
underneath this Python Basics here,
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it says hello.py.
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Now let's go ahead and click that.
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So this little area here,
this is what is known as a text editor.
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And you'll see here we have a tab open,
this is a tab.
0:38
And this is where we're
gonna be writing our code.
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Now, as you can see,
there is a single line of code here, and
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you'll notice that the text
is in different colors.
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As you can see, there's a reddish color
and then there's a teal color here.
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This is called syntax highlighting.
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Syntax is the rules of the language.
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Now, this syntax highlighting is just one
way that our editor is gonna help us out.
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The traditional first step when learning
any programming language is to write this
1:02
phrase here, this "Hello, World".
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You gotta write that out to the screen.
1:10
It's like a rite of passage.
1:12
And its history dates
way back to the 1960s.
1:14
I wanted you to be a part
of this tradition.
1:16
So there's more information
in the teacher's notes.
1:18
So here it is.
1:20
Here is Hello, World in Python.
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What this script is instructing
the computer to do is to output, or
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print, the string, this string here.
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Which is a series of letters and
numbers, Hello, World to the screen.
1:32
Now, you might have noticed
that I'm referring to this file
1:38
named hello.py as a script, that's
1:41
because we're going to pass this file to
what is known as the Python Interpreter.
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And the Interpreter is going
to read through this file
1:48
just like a movie script, line by line.
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The Python Interpreter will then
interpret meaning from your script and
1:54
perform it, or evaluate each line of code.
1:58
This bottom area here is
known as the console.
2:03
Now, this is a terminal session running
on your very own version of Linux.
2:07
Linux is an operating system
much like Windows or Mac OS.
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Now, depending on which operating system
you're running on your local machine,
2:15
you also have an application
like this available to you,
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it's usually tucked away.
2:22
This is what is actually running
underneath all of those Windows.
2:24
So, on a Windows machine, this console
is called the command prompt, or
2:28
the PowerShell.
2:31
On Mac OS, it's called a terminal.
2:32
But this here is running in the Cloud for
you, so you don't need to worry
2:34
about getting things set up on
your local machine just yet.
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Check out the teacher's notes
if you would like to learn more.
2:42
And this here is called
the Command Prompt,
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this little tilde here means that
I'm in my home directory, and
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this slash means that I'm in a subfolder
or a subdirectory named workspace.
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Directories are synonymous with
folders in most operating systems.
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Now this workspace directory, again, or
3:02
folder, is the same one that this
file browser here is showing.
3:04
You can send commands to your
operating system from here.
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For instance,
if I wanted to list all the files,
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I could just run the command ls,
which is short for list.
3:14
And see how it shows my hello.py file?
3:20
It's just like this file browser up here.
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It's the same folder,
it's the Workspace folder.
3:25
So now that we're here
at the Command Prompt,
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we can actually tell
the Python Interpreter to run our script.
3:30
Now, you do this by typing
Python followed by a space and
3:33
then your script's name,
which is our script name is hello.py.
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Here we go, and now you'll see
the output Hello, World indeed.
3:43
Wow, that was a whole bunch
of new information, right?
3:48
Nice job immersing yourself.
3:51
We'll talk about all these terms
again throughout the course but
3:53
let's do one more run through
of what just happened.
3:56
So we have a file browser over here and
it's showing the files from
3:59
the Workspace directory, which is the same
directory in our terminal session.
4:02
And from the command line here we can call
the Python Interpreter by typing python
4:07
and then we pass our file
named hello.py to it.
4:11
In our code editor here, we see a single
line of code and its syntax highlighted.
4:17
That line of code is
calling the print function
4:21
which is being passed a string Hello,
World.
4:25
This line, when evaluated, will write
out that string to the terminal.
4:28
Awesome, glad you got a
chance to hang out in Workspaces.
4:33
It's a super handy tool.
4:35
Remember, you can get the Python
Interpreter installed on your computer and
4:37
run things there, but
let's not focus on that just yet.
4:40
Let's get you coding first.
4:43
We've only read existing code.
4:45
You haven't even written your own yet.
4:46
Let's change that.
4:48
I know, let me show you a cool
feature of the Python Interpreter,
4:49
it has an interactive mode where we can
type Python and it evaluates immediately.
4:52
Let's go do that right
after this quick break.
4:56
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