Python console in mac terminal

Question

I've wanted to try atom as a new IDE for python on macOS, and I've found people usually use the command-line to run scripts with python3 myprogram.py on unix machines.

That works for me, but in some cases I want to test a variable's value without having to add plenty of print() lines in my code, the same way I would be able to with IDLE's or replit's console, without the command-line going back to zsh.

Example with replit

Example with command line

Answer 1

Just type python3 in your terminal and the python console will pop out

Answer 2

You're almost-certainly looking for PDB The Python Debugger: https://docs.python.org/3/library/pdb.html

Run your program as python3 -m pdb myscript.py

Use b to set breakpoints (so you can inspect your program state there or get into libraries), c to run up to that point (continue), and ? to explore commands.. this will allow you to inspect the live state of your program wherever you breakpoint or continue to

Answer 3

Use python3

If it doesn't work you probably don't have Python 3 installed. I recommend installing Homebrew on your macOS. https://brew.sh/

Then you can easily install Python 3 using this command: brew install python3 And additionally if you need pip3 too: brew install python3-pip

Installing packages using brew is almost the same as installing packages on Linux.