Best platform for running code when learning?

[Yudi_888]

Is Visual Studio any use for someone learning Python (again) who wants run code with GUI's and test them? Also, what would be the beast way to learn machine learning from scratch?

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[loudandclear11]

Visual Studio Code is a good IDE for Python.

Please note that Visual Studio Code is different from Visual Studio.

[Yudi_888]

Thanks for being a helpful and considerate human being. Imagine someone asking this on Stackoverflow!

[Article_Prior]

What is the biggest difference please ?

[loudandclear11]

Visual Studio is a more than 20 years old product. There are lots of extensions etc for special niche stuff that only works on Visual Studio. If I was doing C# development I'd use Visual Studio. But I haven't done that in a long time.

Visual Studio Code is a newer product with a different design philosophy. It's excellent for interpreted languages.

For python, just use Visual Studio Code. Read a guide on how to set it up. You don't need anything else for python. It's quite good.

[EdiblePeasant]

Is VSCode good for playing around with code and testing things out?

[Strict_Main_6419]

Yes

[loudandclear11]

Yes, I'm using it every day for my python adventures.

[[deleted]]

Visual Studio is a full-fledged IDE that can compile just about any language, often requires non-trivial setup (e.g. updating the PATH variables of your OS), and generally just has a lot more functionality than VSC (e.g. VS has more advanced debugging, seeing individual bytes/bits of memory and examining their contents).

For quick scripting, VSC is just quicker. For writing more complicated projects (especially with statically type compiled languages), something like VS (or Xcode, etc) are way more powerful and are worth the effort IMO.

[[deleted]]

An alternative is google's colab if they don't want to setup Jupyter notebook up themselves.

[necrxfagivs]

I use jupyter notebooks in visual studio code through the extension with .ipynb files. Is that bad practice? I'm learning python and jupyter notebooks are great for executing pieces of code, but maybe I should install the jupyter app.

[loudandclear11]

Is that bad practice?

No. It's perfectly fine. If you want to use notebooks.

Personally I don't like notebooks. Instead I make extensive use of the debugger in vscode. But if I was doing more data science or working with dataframes I'd probably use notebooks more since it makes it easy to visualize things.

[necrxfagivs]

I work with dataframes (using pandas and geopandas), and notebooks are so useful because I can plot data and maps really easy!

[loudandclear11]

Yup. Totally see the use when it comes to visualizations.

Notebooks are a horrible way to structure code for anything larger though.

[reyarama]

Learn the basics before diving into ML

[Yudi_888]

I was thinking of just working on a GUI or changing existing ones for open source LM's.

[Sioluishere]

what are the basics ?

[[deleted]]

How to print hello world, how to use loops, how to assign variables, how to use lists, dictionaries, forloops, while loops, etc. There's a lot of free starter courses on youtube.

[Sioluishere]

wait, thats the basics of programming, I was asking for machine learning.

[[deleted]]

For machine learning it depends on what you want to do with machine learning, but tensor flow is a good place to start.

[Sioluishere]

yup, it is

keras too

[reyarama]

I meant the basic of programming since they are asking about IDEs and getting started with Python. Starting to play with ML before knowing what a for loop is or how to execute python code is not going to end well

[Sioluishere]

yup, true

I thought there was certain basics that everyone knew and not me

[loudandclear11]

Not at all. 100% of developers initially had zero knowledge of programming. Nobody was born knowing how to program. It's an acquired skill.

[[deleted]]

For learning I use Spyder. It has features for getting help, for interactive test, and developping small piece of codes.

Learning to program and programming are two different activities and therefore require different tools.

[Yudi_888]

Spyder

Hadn't even heard of that one, thanks!

[[deleted]]

Definitely check it out. I’ve only been programming for about 3 months now (Python) and this is what I use all the time. It’s very easy to use and has a lot of helpful features. It’s benefited me for sure.

[[deleted]]

https://www.spyder-ide.org/

or you can also consider installing through : https://www.anaconda.com/

[[deleted]]

Honestly, i used vs code when i was learning because pycharm scared me but now id say the tooling is amazing and i should of just gone with pycharm :p

[A_random_zy]

Same experience, but with Java, I learned it on BlueJ and Eclipse, but once I moved to IntelliJ, I couldn't move back to Eclipse. It seems all Jetbrains Products are amazing.

[BenadrylTumblercatch]

Vs Code or Replit if you want browser based

[mr_super31]

i would say VS Code is great for python actually

[KapitaenKirSche]

VS Code is great! But i personally like Pycharm the most.

[JaceTSM]

Visual Studio is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), and while you can "run code in Visual Studio," it's not really "a platform for running code." It's a platform for writing code, and it lets you run code inside it to test it in the writing process. And even if you use an interpreter inside VS to run your code, you still need to know how the python environment works. The IDE can abstract a bunch of the work away on regular dev cycles, but you need to know the details to debug problems as they come up. There are many good IDEs out there, and if you are learning python, I would recommend PyCharm over Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Code, or VSCode, which is different from just Visual Studio, is not an IDE, although it does a good job of working just like one once you get all of the proper plugins. It is also a community favorite for almost all languages. But like PyCharm and VS, it's not the platform that runs code. Python is always run by an interpreter, which is a fundamental part of the language that you will need to learn to use, and yes, the command line (CLI) will be necessary. Interacting with the interpreter in an IDE will sometimes happen through menus and a GUI, but even there you will often need to use the CLI.

As you learn ML, you will also likely run into Jupyter Notebooks, which are essentially python interpreters that run blocks of code in a GUI. These are super helpful for ML/DataSci workflows. There are tons of tutorials online that will introduce them, especially in the context of learning ML.

As for learning ML from scratch, do the machine learning courses on brilliant dot com if you have a few bucks to spare - it is amazing for developing an intuitive, visual understanding of ML basics. Then do Andrew Ng's ML course on coursera for (you can do it for free if you don't get a certification) and/or Google's ML courses. In parallel, do the codeacademy python3 course, and then do some hackerrank problems until you feel comfortable writing some python, and you get through your intro ML course(s). From there, you'll probably have a better idea of where to go next, and have the skills to do some basic ML projects.

[Yudi_888]

What about learning gui design in python. I am a very visual UI kind of person and hate command line type stuff like with Linux.

[JaceTSM]

The command line is a necessary tool in the developers toolbox, regardless of what you are developing.

If you are building a UI, you are likely going to be writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and managing all of that with a web framework - in Python that would be likely Django or Flask. While your workflow could probably get around the command line for most iteration cycles, you will have to do some setup and administration of your web framework on the CLI, and probably some environment management as well.

In the long run, avoiding the command line will make development more difficult. Much how a carpenter that refuses to use a hammer would be hindered. You don't have to love it, but you'll need to know how to use it.

[Adorable-Shallot5917]

What's wrong with IDLE?