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markspenser
Courses Plus Student 256 PointsShell is same as Interpreter and still same as Terminal ? Thanks
shell = interpreter = terminal ?
2 Answers
Kai Aldag
Courses Plus Student 13,560 PointsHello Mark,
First off, Shell is the same as the interpreter but not a terminal.
An interpreter or shell is where your code is, well, interpreted and ran. so in the video Kenneth uses the python interpreter in his terminal (i'll get to that later) to play around with python. In the shell you're free to play around and type up some cool stuff but normally you won't write a whole python script (or simply python file) in there because once you quit the shell your work is gone.
Now for the terminal. terminal is a Command Line Application (CL) or a console, on windows the program is called command prompt and on mac it's called terminal. A terminal is a way to navigate and interact with your computer without the Graphic User Interface (GUI), once you're in terminal if you've downloaded python then you can simply type in python and it will boot up the python shell. Luck for you treehouse has a course on using a Linux based Command Line here.
Hope this helps and good luck on your python journey, Kai.
markspenser
Courses Plus Student 256 PointsI have checked your link about POSIX based console/terminal things. But I'm using windows and in video was explained, that windows is not similar to all those POSIX operating systems, so I cannot apply my knowledge from there to my pc.
Windows command prompt, you may open when you press WinKey + R and type CMD, then press Enter ?
Kai Aldag
Courses Plus Student 13,560 PointsO, honestly I don't know much window stuff at all. python and the interpreter work the same regardless of which one your own though, all that changes is the way you navigate command line.
It would probably be in your best interest to google something like "how to use windows command prompt" to get familiar with it because you'll use it alot as a developer.
Good luck, Kai
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest TeacherYeah, your Windows Command Prompt, or the Powershell application on newer version of the OS, is about the same as my terminal in Workspaces or on my Mac. There are some under-the-hood differences but nothing that should get in the way of you running the Python interpreter.