You do need an editor of some description. Python comes with an extremely basic one, called IDLE. But you will almost certainly be better off with something like VS Code. More on reddit.com

Posts to this subreddit must be requests for help learning python. They do not have to be code-specific, but do have to be about using and learning python. If asking a question about code Format your code for reddit or use a site like github or pastebin. More on reddit.com

Python is a general-purpose language, and thus can be used for pretty much anything you want. This is in contrast to niche languages like bash or matlab, which are typically used primarily for one thing and one thing only. That said, Python is commonly used in the following fields: Scientific and mathematical computing Big data (machine learning, data mining, etc...) Finance (stock markets, etc) Computer graphics System automation and administration Security and penetration testing Web development Scripting (general and application-specific): Python is generally included by default in most Linux installations, and is also embedded into many popular 3rd party programs such as FreeCAD, 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, Gimp, Inkscape, etc. Education (Python is the number 1 most commonly taught language in universities ( source )) Mapping and geography: Python is commonly used by many GIS software While Python could in theory be used for the following things, it tends not to be, either due to limitations of the interpreters available today, or due to historical happenstance: Writing operating systems (Python isn't low-level enough) Mobile (The major players in mobile did not adopt Python, though there are people working very hard to bring Python to mobile -- see Kivy) Anything having to do with massive concurrency (current implementations of Python are unfortunately not so fantastic with concurrency, though there are people working to change that) Intensive games or other programs that require speed (Python currently has too much overhead and would be too slow) Anything requiring absolutely safety such as heart monitors and software for spaceships (developers tend to use more strict languages when lives are literally on the line (such as Ada)) Edit: Regarding Python and games -- yes, Python is used in some games (most notably Eve Online), has pretty good support for making 2d via libraries like Pygame, is often a part of games to add a layer of scripting, etc., etc -- my point was that Python will never be used as a part of the core graphics/rendering/physics engine of any games requiring a high degree of computation, such as in modern first person shooters. More on reddit.com

I'd suggest the standard library. You'll see both well commented / good code and you'll learn about what's available to you. But where to start? fractions looks moderately easy to understand. logging isn't terribly complex. functools is nice for learning more about decorators. Unfortunately, the standard library uses a lot of single or two letter variable names. Don't do that. If you look in collections, my favoured namedtuple is pretty bad. That aside, the libraries are mostly very good examples of quality code. More on reddit.com