Python

Get the Best Programming Experience with JetBrains PyCharm Education on Linux

PyCharm is one of JetBrains’ most used integrated development environments (IDE). It is specifically developed for writing code in Python which means that all Python frameworks and libraries have well-documented native support within PyCharm. PyCharm edu is an open source version of the PyCharm family that offers the students with free usage by registering with their student ID. Not only does it offer functionality which is similar to the ones that are offered by PyCharm professional (with the exception of some advanced features), it also provides extra educational features like code assessment tools, customizable learning environments, and interactive lessons which are meant to teach the students to code.

PyCharm Edu makes the learning and teaching environment for both students and teachers really intuitive and easy. With its amazing graphical user interface and its huge library support, students can easily get hands-on experience with all of the useful third party libraries and frameworks that are offered by the Python development community. PyCharm is used around the world by people who are primarily working in Python. This includes data scientists and engineers, Python developers, and researchers. This means that the projects that are done in PyCharm can be both big and small with scripts that range from small single file scripts to full-fledged projects with multiple files and complex dependencies. This makes PyCharm a very useful product and adds to its importance and utility. We will discuss how to install and use PyCharm on Linux with the help of the Linux terminal.

Installation Guide

We use the terminal to download and install the PyCharm educational version on a Linux machine.

1. We now download PyCharm using the wget tool in the terminal.

Run the following command in the terminal:

$ wget “https://www.jetbrains.com/edu-products/download/download-thanks-pce.html?platform=linux”

 

You should see an output which is similar to the following:

 

If you do not have the wget installed on your machine, you can manually download the PyCharm Edu by opening this link and clicking on the install button.

You can also install wget by running the following command in the terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install wget

 

2. Once the download is completed, we can proceed with the installation.

We now extract the compressed folder that we just downloaded into the directory where we want it.

3. With it done, we open an instance of the terminal in that directory and run the following command:

$ cd pycharm-community-2022.3.2.tar.gz\?_ga\=2.15595248.715098532.1676137667-633547094.1676137667\&_gl\=1\*1o9xdbv\*_ga\*NjMzNTQ3MDk0LjE2NzYxMzc2Njc.\*_
ga_9J976DJZ68\*MTY3NjIxNDgzNy4zLjEuMTY3NjIxNTAzMC42MC4wLjA/pycharm-community-2022.3.2/bin/

 

Note: The name of the folders may be different for you, depending on when you download the application. Follow the naming convention that you found when you download PyCharm.

4. Now that we are in the required directory, we simply run the script called “pycharm.sh”.

Run the following command in the terminal:

$ ./pycharm.sh

 

You will be prompted to accept the terms and conditions on the following window:

 

Once you accept the terms and conditions, you will be able to see a window which is similar to the following:

 

User Guide

Now that we downloaded and installed the PyCharm Educational version for free, we start off with creating a “New Project” and trying to work with a small DataFrame that shows the data in the form of a table. For this, we work with the Pandas library.

Fresh Install

This is what a fresh project looks like:


Testing PyCharm with Pandas

We now create a script that imports the dependencies, creates a DataFrame, and displays it:


We will see an output which similar to the following upon running the code:


Installing the Python Libraries with Built-In Terminal

Let’s consider working on a project that requires us to install a data visualization library called Matplotlib. We can install it in the current environment using the terminal feature which is baked right into the IDE itself.

Run the following commands in the PyCharm terminal to install the libraries:

$ pip install matplot lib

 

We will see an output which is similar to the following:

Conclusion

PyCharm Edu is a very useful tool for all Python developers. It is user friendly and has an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for developers to navigate and use the features of the IDE. It comes equipped with features like intelligent code completion based on the keywords that you input, error detection which helps you find the errors in the code in real time, intelligent code debugger which helps you properly debug their code, and provides support for testing suites like unittest, pytest, and more. It has version control integration which helps you to connect a version control of your choice like GitHub. All of these useful features make the PyCharm IDE a very useful and feature-rich IDE that can help the developers to write a high-quality Python code more efficiently and effectively.

About the author

Zeeman Memon

Hi there! I'm a Software Engineer who loves to write about tech. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn.