Day 0

"You wouldn't learn to carve wood with your fingernails."

- me

When you start programming half the battle is getting your bearings. Suddenly it matters where you put your files. You need to know where you home directory is, you need to understand file permissions, you need to understand what a file actually is. Trying to program without first learning about the thing you are programming will cause headache.

Fortunately we can do some things to make your life easier. We can install an IDE: a program that lets you visualize your files and folders and quickly switch between them. We can install a version control system that will let you "snapshot" your code and save it to the cloud so you never lose it. We can organize our project to be repeatable, and more importantly, unloseable.

Install VSCode

Your most important tool as a programmer is a proper editor. It should offer you a wide selection of tools but get out of your way when you don't need it. VSCode is a great option in 2020. It has tons of extensions and support for almost every language you can throw at it.

Head to https://code.visualstudio.com/
Click on the download link
Run through the installer, select default options
Open VSCode
Uncheck "Show welcome page on startup"
Close out of the welcome page

Install Git

Git is a version control program, but you can think of it as your best friend in the cold, dark world of data loss. Git will make sure you don't lose progress. It lets you save your code at various stages and

Head to https://git-scm.com/
Click Download
Run through the default install process

Install Python

Head to https://www.python.org/
Hover over Downloads and click the most recent version
Run through the install process - uncheck "install for all users" and check "add python 3.9 to path"

Create a "Projects" folder

I keep all my projects in a folder called "Projects" in my home directory. On Windows this is at C:\Users\username\Projects. Create this folder now. Bookmark it, put it in your favorites, don't lose it.

In your Projects folder create another folder called my_website
Switch to VSCode You can use alt+tab to quickly switch between windows. Press ctrl+k+o and select the projects/my_website folder

Create a virtual environment

A python virtual environment is a folder that will hold your python installation for the project you're working on. You'll have a virtual environment for every project you create.

With your "my_website" folder open in VSCode open the terminal with ctrl+~
Type python --version
If you see Python 3.9.# you have the correct version, if you see another version try typing python3.9 --version. If that doesn't work you'll need to reinstall python 3.9.
Type python -m venv venv. You'll see a folder appear on the right side of VSCode.
Source your venv: type venv\Scripts\activate. You'll see a (venv) appear next to your terminal cursor.

Install Django

Django is a pip package. Pip packages are other people's python code that you can download for free. In much the same way you downloaded VSCode and Python itself with your browser, we can download pip packages with "pip". Pip comes preinstalled with Python.

Make sure you followed step 5 above, you should have a (venv) next to your terminal cursor. Type pip install django
If you have a warning like above you can ignore it for now. Type django-admin startproject config .
Click on manage.py. You should see VSCode activate python extensions in the bottom left and select an interpretor. ('venv': venv) should be selected.
Close out of manage.py by clicking the 'x' at the top.
Type python manage.py runserver
Open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000
You should see an install success page. If so, congratulations! You have successfully installed Django.