Getting Started with PyCharm for Python Programming

To complete the programming projects of the beginner section of the Python 100 days of code bootcamp you are recommended to install PyCharm as the coding editor. Via PyCharm you can then get easy access to a folder structure with the projects of the first 15 days including each time a blank main.py file, some instructions and a solutions file. I had never used PyCharm before and I have to say I am positively impressed. I have used Spyder in the past to create some basic scripts, mainly because it comes installed together with Anaconda but this is geared towards data science and analysis. I have actually not really explored the possibilities of Spyder so I cannot say much about it. For general programming I have mostly used Visual Studio Code so far. Mostly because it was free and someone recommended it. Also because it is very versatile and I was writing html and css mostly and that works quite well in Visual Studio Code. The integration with Github, the powerful autocomplete and Emmet integration are strong points for me in Visual Studio Code. But getting it set up takes a bit of work. PyCharm is more user-friendly in my opinion. I have only used PyCharm for Python coding so far but the easy creation of virtual environments for a project and installation of needed packages in that virtual environment is a handy feature. I am using the fee version of PyCharm which obviously is more than sufficient to follow the course. By the time I get through the 100 days I hope to have formed a more rounded opinion about the capabilities of PyCharm. It also has Git, Anaconda and Jupyter integration and many other features that I plan to explore for some of my own home projects.