Set up your project

[github-learning-lab]

Welcome to this (mildly) advanced Python tutorial! Today we'll be writing a script to mimic a common real-world action. If you've ever played a tabletop game, you know there are many dice rolls to make. This tutorial will show how to harness a combination of Python skills to make an automatic dice roller. But first, before we do that, we'll need to get a few things set up on your system.

Having Python

First, in order to do anything in Python, you need to have Python on your computer! Let's make sure it's installed. Open up a terminal and type `python -V. There are a few possible things it can output here:

If the output begins with Python 3, you're good to go! This tutorial was tested on a system running Python 3.7.4, but it should be compatible with any version of Python 3.

If the output begins with Python 2, you have Python, but it's an outdated version. You'll need to download Python 3 to follow this tutorial. Go to the Python website to download it.

If you get a command that reads something similar to command not found, no version of Python is on your system. You'll need to go to the Python website to download it.

Having Git

We also need to make sure Git is installed on your system. Check that by typing git --version in a terminal. If it outputs a git version you're good to go! If not, go to the Git website to download it.

Cloning this Repository

Now that we have Git, we can clone the repository containing the building block of the code you'll be writing. In the terminal type git clone https://github.com/min235/intermediate-python-course

Inside the repo you'll see two files:

• README.md: a markdown file that details some info about the project
• dice-roller.py: a Python file containing the code you'll be building off of

Now that we have everything we need, we can actually begin writing our dice roller! Let's begin!

Leave a comment with your favorite dice-rolling game to continue.