What is Pycharm?

Pycharm is an advanced editor for Python. It has many professional functions. The most important for our purpose is the ability to execute code on a remote computer. In this course, you will edit code on the laptop but it will run on the robot's Raspberry Pi. See the slides for more information.

Interface

The image below shows the main elements of the Pycharm interface.

interface.png

How to perform common operations in Pycharm

Opening a file

Opening an existing file is done by double-clicking its file name in the list of project files.

Creating a new file

Creating a new file is done by right-clicking roomba at the top of the project file list. Next, select new file > python file. This will bring up a dialog box asking you to name your file. This is shown in the image below.

⚠️You should create your own files. Do not use my files to write your code. These might be overwritten if I have to update the robot code. You can copy-paste code from my examples to your files.

new_file.png

Running code

Running code is done by right-clicking in the body of the file and selecting run 'xxx', with xxx your filename. This is shown below.

run_code.png

Stopping and re-running your code

Stopping and/or Re-running your code can be done from the control window that appears when running your code. If you run your code as indicated above, PyCharm will start a new console to run the program in. This console comes with its own control buttons, as shown below.

rerun.png

Dealing with issues