Notepad++ won't work with Python

Question

I'm just getting into programming and took the common advice of using a free text editor with python. I seem to be running into a problem and everything I've tried so far hasn't worked.

I downloaded Anaconda from this url and whenever I put the location of python.exe into the run bar: C:\Users\Home\Anaconda2\python.exe all I get is the python console to pop up. I've tried adding: "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" to the end as one user had suggested, but that just opens up the console and closes it immediately after. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

First, I usually create a space for all my projects. Usually C:\projects so it's easy to find. Then I create a folder for specific work. I'd do C:\projects\learningPython.

Now, create a new file and save it to C:\projects\learningPython\hello-world.py

In the file put this line

print('Hello World!')

Then click save.

Now open a command prompt (enter cmd in the run bar)

now enter this in the command prompt:

python C:\projects\learningPython\hello-world.py

Hopefully this will work for you. Let me know if you do not see 'Hello World' appear on the command prompt.

Answer 2

After you followed nlloyd instructions and you are assured that your setup works and you can use Python from the commandline, I would use the nppexec Plugin to integrate Python (and other external tools) with notepad++ . (You can get it from Notepad++ PluginCentral or directly via the Plugins -> PluginManager.) There I would create a nppexec script: with the following lines (use Plugins -> NppExec -> Execute... ):

npp_save
C:\Tools\Python\Python.exe $(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)

• change C:\Tools\Python\Python.exe to whereever you have installed python
• save this nppexec script
• use the commands Execute... and Direct execute previous from Plugins -> Nppexec menu to select the nppexec script (if you have several) and repeatedly use the same nppexec script