Essential for Tech Newbies: Complete Guide to Setting Up a Flask Development Environment

This article introduces the basics of Flask, a lightweight Python Web framework, suitable for beginners to get started quickly. It first clarifies that Flask is as flexible as building with blocks, allowing the development of simple websites without complex configurations. The core steps include: 1. **Preparing the Python environment**: Download the 3.x version (e.g., 3.9+) from the official website. When installing on Windows, check "Add Python to PATH". Verify with `python --version`. 2. **Installing Flask**: Use `pip install flask` (or a domestic mirror for acceleration) and verify with `flask --version`. 3. **Virtual environment (optional but recommended)**: Create an isolated project dependency environment by running `python -m venv venv`. Activate it with `venv\Scripts\activate` on Windows or `source venv/bin/activate` on Mac/Linux. 4. **First application**: Create `app.py`, import Flask and create an instance, define a route `@app.route('/')` to return content, run `python app.py`, and visit `http://127.0.0.1:5000/` in the browser to see the result. The article also mentions common issues (such as installation failures and port conflicts) and troubleshooting approaches, encouraging...