P1: Download + Intro to Python & VS Code

Nicky Wakim

2026-04-09

How did I make these slides?

What is Python?

  • A general-purpose programming language
  • The “gold standard” for machine learning and data science
  • Extensive libraries for biostatistics (pandas, statsmodels)
  • Highly readable syntax

What is an IDE?

Python is the Engine

  • It does the calculations.
  • You could run it in a terminal, but it’s not pretty.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is the Dashboard

  • R Studio is an IDE for R
  • It provides a script editor, file explorer, and data viewer all in one place
  • I did some looking around, and we have a choice of IDEs:
  • We rarely open Python itself
  • We are usually working in specific Python files: .py (like .R) or .ipynb (Jupyter Notebooks, like .qmd)

So let’s take some time to download each!