I've noticed a lot of interest in my Python program, a Minecraft username checker, as well as Croc's social media checker.
Unfortunately, it seems the biggest issue is people not being familiar with Python, which is understandable as the Minecraft community is much more Java-based than Python based, and has a lot of younger users that may not have any experience in programming at all. Although this guide requires no knowledge of any programming language, you should be familiar with downloading and installing programs, and possibly some command prompt usage (cmd).
Hopefully this guide will be brief enough, yet comprehensive enough, that anyone will be able to install the latest version of Python (3.6.2 as of 22 August 2017) and run a Python program (I will focus on my checker), without any issues.
Before we begin, you should understand what Python is. Python is a high-level interpreted object-oriented programming language. For those of you who are familiar with Java, it's kind of like Java, but much easier and more straight-forward.
The first step is to install the latest version of Python, available here:
https://www.python.org/downloads/
1. Download latest version of Python for Windows - This is what most of you want to click.
2. If you're running Mac - you will want to click on the Mac OS X download link, where you will want to download the installer for the latest version on that page.
Since I have no experience with Mac, I will be focusing on the Windows installation process.
(Once you have installed Python on Mac, the process of running the Python program is essentially the same).
After downloading Python, you should see a file named something like python-3.6.2.exe in your Downloads folder:
Double click to run the installer, and you will see a screen like this:
Make sure you have selected 'Add Python 3.6 to PATH'. What this means is that you will be able to run the 'python' command from any folder on your computer, instead of being forced to use the Python console or having to specify the full file-path location to the Python binaries every time you want to run a .py script.
You can now click 'Install Now' and Python will be installed.
If everything went okay, you should see a success message (shown below), and you can feel free to close the window:
Now there are a few ways to verify things have been done correctly:
The next step is to understand how to run various Python programs.
Most Python programs are command-line programs. You do what we did above (type 'python') but you have to give it some arguments, such as the script name, and some programs might even take more arguments (i.e. an input file).
Here is a very basic Python program you can test:
test.py:
Feel free to save this, and try testing the program below by running it via command-line:
Another method of running a Python program (that takes no arguments) is to run it using the Python console:
You notice that nothing happened (actually a black box flashed very quickly, then closed). This is because the program printed 'Hello, world!' then exited. Some programs that are meant to be run via the command-line will act like that.
Congratulations, now you know how to run Python programs (via the command-line, and via the Python console)!
I will now focus on something concerning my person Minecraft username checker, available here: http://www.mc-market.org/resources/4480/
In version 1.1 of my Minecraft username checker, I have it setup so that it can be run using the Python console, so those of you who were trying to do this unsuccessfully, you can do it now without any problems! See below:
Requests?
If you have freshly installed Python, you will not have access to all the dependencies, namely 'requests'. Simply following the instructions given (i.e. running 'pip install requests' on the command-line will fix this):
MAKE SURE YOU RUN "pip install requests" IN COMMAND PROMPT (CMD.еxe), NOT A PYTHON TERMINAL!
Then try running the program again:
Hopefully this answers all of your questions concerning Python and my checker. If you have any further questions, feel free to post below and I (or someone else) will do their best to answer it.
Unfortunately, it seems the biggest issue is people not being familiar with Python, which is understandable as the Minecraft community is much more Java-based than Python based, and has a lot of younger users that may not have any experience in programming at all. Although this guide requires no knowledge of any programming language, you should be familiar with downloading and installing programs, and possibly some command prompt usage (cmd).
Hopefully this guide will be brief enough, yet comprehensive enough, that anyone will be able to install the latest version of Python (3.6.2 as of 22 August 2017) and run a Python program (I will focus on my checker), without any issues.
Before we begin, you should understand what Python is. Python is a high-level interpreted object-oriented programming language. For those of you who are familiar with Java, it's kind of like Java, but much easier and more straight-forward.
The first step is to install the latest version of Python, available here:
https://www.python.org/downloads/
1. Download latest version of Python for Windows - This is what most of you want to click.
2. If you're running Mac - you will want to click on the Mac OS X download link, where you will want to download the installer for the latest version on that page.
Since I have no experience with Mac, I will be focusing on the Windows installation process.
(Once you have installed Python on Mac, the process of running the Python program is essentially the same).
After downloading Python, you should see a file named something like python-3.6.2.exe in your Downloads folder:
Double click to run the installer, and you will see a screen like this:
Make sure you have selected 'Add Python 3.6 to PATH'. What this means is that you will be able to run the 'python' command from any folder on your computer, instead of being forced to use the Python console or having to specify the full file-path location to the Python binaries every time you want to run a .py script.
You can now click 'Install Now' and Python will be installed.
If everything went okay, you should see a success message (shown below), and you can feel free to close the window:
Now there are a few ways to verify things have been done correctly:
- Run the Python console:
You should see a window popup, displaying the version of Python you have installed:
- You can also try running 'python' from the command-line. This can verify your Python version as well as verify that Python has been added to your PATH.
The simpliest way to open a CMD within a specific folder is to click the filepath and type in 'cmd', shown below:
You can now type in 'python', which should start the Python console (very similar to what we did in #1):
As you can see, we have Python 3.6.2 installed, and since we are in a random folder and 'python' worked, that means it was added to our PATH successfully.
The next step is to understand how to run various Python programs.
Most Python programs are command-line programs. You do what we did above (type 'python') but you have to give it some arguments, such as the script name, and some programs might even take more arguments (i.e. an input file).
Here is a very basic Python program you can test:
test.py:
Code:
print("Hello, world!")Feel free to save this, and try testing the program below by running it via command-line:
Another method of running a Python program (that takes no arguments) is to run it using the Python console:
You notice that nothing happened (actually a black box flashed very quickly, then closed). This is because the program printed 'Hello, world!' then exited. Some programs that are meant to be run via the command-line will act like that.
Congratulations, now you know how to run Python programs (via the command-line, and via the Python console)!
I will now focus on something concerning my person Minecraft username checker, available here: http://www.mc-market.org/resources/4480/
In version 1.1 of my Minecraft username checker, I have it setup so that it can be run using the Python console, so those of you who were trying to do this unsuccessfully, you can do it now without any problems! See below:
Requests?
If you have freshly installed Python, you will not have access to all the dependencies, namely 'requests'. Simply following the instructions given (i.e. running 'pip install requests' on the command-line will fix this):
MAKE SURE YOU RUN "pip install requests" IN COMMAND PROMPT (CMD.еxe), NOT A PYTHON TERMINAL!
Then try running the program again:
Hopefully this answers all of your questions concerning Python and my checker. If you have any further questions, feel free to post below and I (or someone else) will do their best to answer it.
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