This section includes the first two chapters of this book. Mainly concerned with introducing readers to the idea of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) as well as the details of PyCharm, this section will discuss various comparisons between PyCharm itself and other notable editors/IDEs in the Python community, in combination with the differences between the two versions of PyCharm available for download.

The first chapter will not go into any technical details of using PyCharm. Instead, we will analyze the purpose of using an IDE for programming projects and who (in terms of the level of competence, familiarity with Python, and so on) will benefit the most from using an IDE in general and using PyCharm specifically. The case will be made for choosing to use PyCharm over other editors and IDEs for your Python projects (given that some pre-conditions are satisfied).

The second chapter will then lay out a step-by-step guide that walks you through the process of downloading, registering, and setting up your PyCharm environment, which will put you in the optimal position to start any Python project with the full support of PyCharm.

This section includes the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, Introduction to PyCharm – the Most Popular IDE for Python
• Chapter 2, Installing and Configuring PyCharm