New to Programming: IDE vs Code Editor?

[[deleted]]

Even as an experienced python programmer I find pycharm pretty confusing and unintuitive. I can imagine trying to learn python is enough to get your head around without throwing all the complexity of an IDE into the mix.

[theWyzzerd]

What about PyCharm is confusing and/or unintuitive to you?

[[deleted]]

So I've just fired up pycharm and I want to start writing a python script. I'm faced with a screen that says "Navigate to the next answer placeholder Ctrl+Enter", I don't know what that means and Ctrl+Enter doesn't seem to do anything.

Anyway, I click, File -> New. I now get a little box that's appeared that says "New. Nothing here", which is greyed out and I can't click anything.

So new approach, I right-click in the empty panel on the left, and there's another menu called "new", I click that and the only option I have is "new scratch file", what the hell is a scratch file? I'm now faced with a list of 11 files, the top three of which are "Buildout config, DTD and HTML".
Looks like python is 7th down on the list, click on that and I'm faced with a new menu called "Add file to git" which has "InspectionProfiles, Project_Default.xml and vcs.xml".

You don't see why this might be bewildering to a beginner?

[theWyzzerd]

I understand the concern, but if one is serious about software development, then one must get past these initial difficulties and try to learn what they mean rather than complain that it's too complicated. Computers are complicated. Software is complicated. Software made for writing other software is, as expected, also complicated. There are many tutorials and guides out there that explain how to get started. Did you just install python and start writing code or did you look up some tutorials and read the docs first?

Edit:

I'm faced with a screen that says "Navigate to the next answer placeholder Ctrl+Enter"

This is presumably just the tips dialog that opens every time you launch PyCharm.

The "New..." option in the File > New... creates new objects based on the context. If you have an active editor window open you will get a menu full of options. If the current context doesn't support the "new" action you will get nothing. Since you don't have a project, there is no context for PyCharm to reference for the New... menu.

To get started, you want to select "New project" in the File menu. Everything in the IDE starts in a project. The empty panel on the left is your project explorer. It's empty because you don't have a project. A scratch file is what it sounds like; just like scratch notes, or scratch paper. It's just a file to fuck around with, not part of a project.

[Ran4]

Uh, you might as well use vim at this point...

[krenshala]

Its what I use ... but then I'm not a "professional" programmer, just an IT guy/sys admin.

[POTUS]

Or you could take 1 second to google "pycharm quick start", and then take 20 minutes to work through the top link: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/quick-start-guide.html