This is different from the python command which will load up Python 2.7. To run Python 3 from the Terminal, you’ll use the command python3. There are a couple ways that you can run Python 3 scripts on your Mac.ġ.
Inside that folder you’ll find a GUI interface for launching Python applications, as well as IDLE, an IDE for developing Python applications. If you open the Applications folder, you’ll find a new Python 3.x folder.Ĥ. Double-click on the downloaded file to run the Python 3 installer.ģ. Download the most recent package from the Python website.Ģ. You can even run it alongside a concurrent Python 2.7 installation without affecting the version 2.7 installation.ġ. Upgrading to Python 3 on your MacĮven if it isn’t the de facto standard, you can run Python 3 on your computer today. Utilities like 2to3 make it easier to transform a Python 2 program into valid Python 3 syntax, but if you’ve ever used Google Translate, you know this won’t be perfect. The prompt for that is > At the Python shell prompt type import idlelib.idle This will start the. You should see the line Hello World Congratulations, you have run your first Python program. The developers have set 2020 as the final year for Python 2 support, and everyone will need to transition their programs over to Python 3 by then. To run the program, type python Hello.py and hit Return. However, Python 2 isn’t going to be around forever. Plus, Python 2.7.10 is pre-installed on all Macs and a number of Linux distros.
Python 2 is a strong language, and only power users will get to experience the full benefit of Python 3’s new features. Even fundamental functions like print work differently between Python 2 and 3, making it non-trivial to move from one platform to another.īut why hasn’t the whole world switched over to Python 3? The main problem is that there’s a lack of compelling motivation.
That means that programs written for a Python 2 interpreter won’t run on a Python 3 interpreter.
However, alongside those new features, Python 3 also has a problem: it’s not backwards compatible with Python 2. They wouldn’t be totally wrong since Python 3 includes some cool new features that Python 2 does not have. A naive user might think that Python 3 is better because it’s newer.