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Setting Up Your First Development Environment

A from-scratch lab to get your first coding environment working — editor, a language runtime, the terminal, and Git — so setup friction never blocks your learning again.

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Topic: Student Life Lab beginner 12 min read

Starting state: A personal laptop (Windows, macOS, or Linux) with administrator rights and an internet connection. No prior setup or programming experience required.

Objective

Get a working development environment on your own machine — an editor, a language you can run, a working terminal, and Git — so setup friction never again stands between you and learning. Doing this once, properly, at the start of college saves countless hours over four years.

Setup

Confirm you have admin rights and a stable internet connection. This lab is entirely local and free.

Steps

Install a code editor. Install Visual Studio Code (free, cross-platform). Open it once to confirm it launches.
Install a language runtime. Python is a forgiving first language. Install from python.org. On Windows, tick "Add Python to PATH" — this one checkbox prevents the most common beginner setup problem.
Open a terminal. In VS Code, Terminal → New Terminal. Getting comfortable typing commands here is a high-value early habit.
Confirm the runtime works. Type python --version. You should see a version number. "Command not found" usually means the PATH step was missed.
Write and run your first program. Create hello.py with print("Hello — my environment works"), then run python hello.py. Seeing your text means the whole chain works end to end.
Install Git from git-scm.com and confirm with git --version. You don't need to use it yet — just have it ready.

Verification checklist

A code editor is installed and opens.
A language runtime prints its version from the terminal.
You can create, save, and run a one-line program.
Git is installed and prints its version.

Extend this lab

Change hello.py to ask for your name with input() and greet you back. Running a program that responds to you is the first real taste of programming. When ready, read Your First Program: Understanding Before Memorizing.

Verification checklist

A code editor is installed and opens.
A language runtime is installed and prints its version from the terminal.
You can create, save, and run a one-line program that prints text.
Git is installed and prints its version.

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