# Is Python difficult to learn? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 28, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141 "2021-06-28T00:14:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141/41 "2021-07-03T13:21:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Oh, neat. Never knew that Easter egg (if it legitimately counts as one.) Then again, I just dabble, but it worked in my terminal. When you’re done playing with that, try `import antigravity` 😀 ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2021, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141/42 "2021-07-03T13:27:50Z")
PyCharm is good, if you subscribe to JetBrains idea that everything is a project. In my experience though, everything is not a project, and I just want edit a single file. I know that editing a single file now possible since last year, but IDLE, the IDE from the python org itself is more than sufficient for someone trying to learn the language. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141/43 "2021-07-03T16:54:52Z")
> [@icon](#): > > PyCharm is good, if you subscribe to JetBrains idea that everything is a project. In my experience though, everything is not a project, and I just want edit a single file. I know that editing a single file now possible since last year, but IDLE, the IDE from the python org itself is more than sufficient for someone trying to learn the language. I agree that for complete beginners IDLE is OK. I outgrew it pretty fast though. There are also beginner IDEs such as [mu](https://codewith.mu/) which are friendlier than IDLE. In fact, the classic [Automate the Boring Stuff with Python](https://automatetheboringstuff.com/) (which I highly recommend to the OP btw) has switched from recommending IDLE to recommending mu in recent versions. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141/44 "2021-07-04T03:34:02Z")
I was just going to recommend the _Automate the Boring Stuff_ book as well. Even if it doesn’t address the OP’s direct need, it has some very interesting ideas to show what’s possible. I had my students in my Intro to Programming class use it, since the class had a mixture of students including many who were not going into programming. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141/45 "2021-07-04T18:51:59Z")
I took an undergrad intro class in the CS department that focused on C (somehow this chemist needed another science class.) I immediately forgot everything. A few years ago, the bosses paid for me to take an 80 hour data science class that used Python. It seemed pretty easy, but I don’t have much basis for comparison to other languages and don’t have any way to know how much I actually learned vs how much there is to still learn. I did learn that when I forget how to do something or want to try something new, everything is very googleable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-python-difficult-to-learn/945141.md?page=2)