Introduction to Python for DH

Welcome to Python for the Digital Humanities. Before we write any code, we need a working Python environment. The video above gives an overview of the series; this written lesson walks through a clean 2026-era setup that you only have to do once.

There are two pieces to install:

1. Python, the language itself, managed through uv — a fast, modern Python installer and project tool from Astral.
2. Visual Studio Code, a free editor that runs Python well on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

You can absolutely use other editors (PyCharm, Cursor, Zed, even a plain terminal) and other installation methods. The combination below is just a sensible default for someone starting out today.

1. Install uv

uv is a single command-line tool that downloads Python for you, manages versions, and handles project dependencies. It replaces the old dance of “install Python, then install pip, then create a virtual environment.”

On macOS or Linux, open a terminal and run:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

On Windows, open PowerShell and run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Close and reopen the terminal so the new uv command is on your PATH. To confirm it works:

uv --version

You should see a version number printed back to you.

2. Install Python through uv

Tell uv which Python version to install. For this course, any modern version (3.11 or newer) is fine. We’ll pin to 3.12:

uv python install 3.12

uv will download the interpreter and remember it. You don’t need to add anything to your PATH manually.

3. Create your first project

Pick a folder where your course work will live and create a project in it:

mkdir python-for-dh
cd python-for-dh
uv init --python 3.12

This creates a small project with a pyproject.toml and a main.py. To run it:

uv run main.py

When you want to add a third-party library later in the course (like requests or beautifulsoup4), you’ll do:

uv add requests

uv handles the virtual environment for you — there is no pip install to memorize and no venv to activate.

4. Install Visual Studio Code

Download VS Code from the official site:

https://code.visualstudio.com/

After installing, open VS Code and install the Python extension from Microsoft (search Python in the Extensions sidebar). The extension gives you syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and a click-to-run button for Python files.

Open your project folder in VS Code with File → Open Folder… and pick the python-for-dh directory you just made.

5. Verify everything works

Inside VS Code, open main.py and replace its contents with:

print("Hello, digital humanities!")

Save the file, then in the VS Code terminal (Terminal → New Terminal) run:

uv run main.py

If you see Hello, digital humanities! printed back, you are ready for Lesson 02.

A note on older tutorials. The original version of this course (filmed in 2020) recommended installing Python 3.7 from python.org and using the Atom editor. Both still work, but Atom has been retired and Python has moved on through many versions. The uv + VS Code combination above is the path I’d recommend to anyone starting today.