Unit 2: Your Development Environment

The editor is not Python. The terminal is not Python. The file explorer is not the filesystem. A Run button is not magic.

Those statements sound obvious after you understand them. Before that, they explain a ridiculous number of beginner failures.

Four layers on one screen

Your development workspace brings several systems together:

• an editor changes source text;
• a filesystem stores files and directories;
• a shell/terminal launches commands in a working directory;
• a Python interpreter executes a particular file using a particular runtime.

A polished interface can make those boundaries disappear. This Unit puts them back.

You will create and organize a project, move through directories, run Python explicitly, inspect paths, and prove which interpreter and file are actually being used. You will also create at least one deliberate mismatch, such as running the wrong file or working from the wrong directory, because the failure exposes the architecture better than another screenshot tour of VS Code ever could.

Leave with an environment receipt

Your final evidence is an environment receipt: project path, current working directory, Python executable/interpreter evidence, target file, and successful output. If your workspace changes later, this receipt gives you something concrete to compare against instead of saying, “It worked yesterday.”