1.. _tutorials.gettingstarted.devenvironment: 2 3The Development Environment 4=========================== 5You develop and upload Python applications for Google App Engine using the App 6Engine Python software development kit (SDK). 7 8The Python SDK includes a web server application that simulates the App Engine 9environment, including a local version of the datastore, Google Accounts, and 10the ability to fetch URLs and send email directly from your computer using the 11App Engine APIs. The Python SDK runs on any computer with Python 2.5, and 12versions are available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The Python SDK is 13not compatible with Python 3. 14 15The Python SDK for Windows and Mac includes Google App Engine Launcher, an 16application that runs on your computer and provides a graphical interface that 17simplifies many common App Engine development tasks. 18 19If necessary, download and install Python 2.5 for your platform from 20`the Python web site <http://www.python.org/>`_. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users 21already have Python 2.5 installed. 22 23`Download the App Engine SDK <http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html>`_. 24Follow the instructions on the download page to install the SDK on your 25computer. 26 27For this tutorial, you will use two commands from the SDK: 28 29- `dev_appserver.py <http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/tools/devserver.html>`_, the development web server 30- `appcfg.py <http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/tools/uploadinganapp.html>`_, for uploading your app to App Engine 31 32Windows and Mac users can run Google App Engine Launcher and simply click the 33Run and Deploy buttons instead of using these commands. 34 35For Windows users: The Windows installer puts these commands in the command 36path. After installation, you can run these commands from a command prompt. 37 38For Mac users: You can put these commands in the command path by selecting 39"Make Symlinks..." from the "GoogleAppEngineLauncher" menu. 40 41If you are using the Zip archive version of the SDK, you will find these 42commands in the ``google_appengine`` directory. 43 44 45Next... 46------- 47The local development environment lets you develop and test complete App Engine 48applications before showing them to the world. Let's write some code. 49 50Continue to :ref:`tutorials.gettingstarted.helloworld`. 51