Tutorial 0 - Let\'s get set up!

Before we build our first BeeWare app, we have to make sure we\'ve got all the prerequisites for running BeeWare.

Install Python

The first thing we\'ll need is a working Python interpreter.

:::::: {.tabs} ::: {.group-tab} macOS

If you\'re on macOS, a recent version of Python is included with Xcode or the command line developer tools. To check if you already have it, run the following command:

$ python3 --version

If Python is installed, you\'ll see its version number. Otherwise, you\'ll be prompted to install the command line developer tools.

You should ensure that you are using Python 3.9 or newer. If it isn\'t, you\'ll need to upgrade your Python install. You can get the official installer from the Python website. You can use any stable version of Python from 3.9 onward. We\'d advise avoiding alphas, betas, and release candidates unless you really know what you\'re doing. :::

::: {.group-tab} Linux

If you\'re on Linux, you\'ll install Python using the system package manager (apt on Debian/Ubuntu/Mint, dnf on Fedora, or pacman on Arch).

You should ensure that the system Python is Python 3.9 or newer; if it isn\'t (e.g., Ubuntu 20.04 ships with Python 3.8), you\'ll need to upgrade your Linux distribution to something more recent.

Support for Raspberry Pi is limited at this time. :::

::: {.group-tab} Windows

If you\'re on Windows, you can get the official installer from the Python website. You can use any stable version of Python from 3.9 to 3.13. We\'d also advise avoiding alphas, betas, and release candidates unless you really know what you\'re doing. ::: ::::::

::: {.admonition} Alternative Python distributions

There are lots of different ways of installing Python. You can install Python through homebrew. You can use pyenv to manage multiple Python installs on the same machine. Windows users can install Python from the Windows App Store. Users from a data science background might want to use Anaconda or Miniconda.

If you\'re on macOS or Windows, it doesn\'t matter how you\'ve installed Python - it only matters that you can run python3 from your operating system\'s command prompt/terminal application, and get a working Python interpreter.

If you\'re on Linux, you must use the system Python provided by your operating system. You will be able to complete most of this tutorial using a non-system Python, but you won\'t be able to package your application for distribution to others. :::

Install dependencies

Next, install the additional dependencies needed for your operating system:

:::::: {.tabs} ::: {.group-tab} macOS

Building BeeWare apps on macOS requires:

• Git, a version control system. This is included with Xcode or the command line developer tools, which you installed above. You may need to open Xcode for the first time in order for Git to work in your terminal session. If it still doesn\'t register that Git is installed, you may need to restart your terminal session. :::

::: {.group-tab} Linux

To support local development, you\'ll need to install some system packages. The list of packages required varies depending on your distribution:

Ubuntu / Debian

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install git build-essential pkg-config python3-dev python3-venv libgirepository1.0-dev libcairo2-dev gir1.2-gtk-3.0 libcanberra-gtk3-module

Fedora

$ sudo dnf install git gcc make pkg-config rpm-build python3-devel gobject-introspection-devel cairo-gobject-devel gtk3 libcanberra-gtk3

Arch / Manjaro

$ sudo pacman -Syu git base-devel pkgconf python3 gobject-introspection cairo gtk3 libcanberra

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

$ sudo zypper install git patterns-devel-base-devel_basis pkgconf-pkg-config python3-devel gobject-introspection-devel cairo-devel gtk3 'typelib(Gtk)=3.0' libcanberra-gtk3-module

:::

::: {.group-tab} Windows

Building BeeWare apps on Windows requires:

• Git, a version control system. You can download Git from from git-scm.com.

After installing these tools, you should ensure you restart any terminal sessions. Windows will only expose newly installed tools terminals started after the install has completed. ::: ::::::

Set up a virtual environment

We\'re now going to create a virtual environment - a \"sandbox\" that we can use to isolate our work on this tutorial from our main Python installation. If we install packages into the virtual environment, our main Python installation (and any other Python projects on our computer) won\'t be affected. If we make a complete mess of our virtual environment, we\'ll be able to simply delete it and start again, without affecting any other Python project on our computer, and without the need to re-install Python.

macOSLinuxWindows

$ mkdir beeware-tutorial
$ cd beeware-tutorial
$ python3 -m venv beeware-venv
$ source beeware-venv/bin/activate

$ mkdir beeware-tutorial
$ cd beeware-tutorial
$ python3 -m venv beeware-venv
$ source beeware-venv/bin/activate

C:\...>md beeware-tutorial
C:\...>cd beeware-tutorial
C:\...>py -3.12 -m venv beeware-venv
C:\...>beeware-venv\Scripts\activate

If you\'re not using Python 3.12, replace the -3.12 in these instructions with the version number that you are using.

Errors running PowerShell Scripts

If you\'re using PowerShell, and you receive the error:

File C:\...\beeware-tutorial\beeware-venv\Scripts\activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

Your Windows account doesn\'t have permissions to run scripts. To fix this:

1. Run Windows PowerShell as Administrator.
2. Run set-executionpolicy RemoteSigned
3. Select Y to change the execution policy.

Once you\'ve done this you can rerun beeware-venv\Scripts\activate.ps1 in your original PowerShell session (or a new session in the same directory).

If this worked, your prompt should now be changed - it should have a (beeware-venv) prefix. This lets you know that you\'re currently in your BeeWare virtual environment. Whenever you\'re working on this tutorial, you should make sure your virtual environment is activated. If it isn\'t, re-run the last command (the activate command) to re-activate your environment.

::: {.admonition} Alternative virtual environments

If you\'re using Anaconda or miniconda, you may be more familiar with using conda environments. You might also have heard of virtualenv, a predecessor to Python\'s built in venv module. As with Python installs -if you\'re on macOS or Windows, it doesn\'t matter how you create your virtual environment, as long as you have one. If you\'re on Linux, you should stick to venv and the system Python. :::

Next steps

We\'ve now set up our environment. We\'re ready to create our first BeeWare application <tutorial-1>.