Portable Python - you can install it on a USB stick: http://www.portablepython.com/
Alternatively, if you have a decent web browser available, you can get a free account with Pythonanywhere: http://www.pythonanywhere.com/
There are two kinds of 'online' programming. You're talking about client side programming, which is generally only done in javascript or flash. Doing it in Python requires either a plugin which not everyone will have installed, or something like Skulpt, which runs Python in javascript. But with the latter you lose a lot of the convenience of Python libraries etc.
Server side programming is much more common, although you do need a server which supports Python. Many cheap hosts don't, but it's becoming more common, and there a lot of specialist app-hosting services, many of which support Python.
Perhaps the easiest thing for the questioner is to try Pythonanywhere, which gives you a terminal running Python in your browser - so you can use the same simple code as on your own machine. Although I'm not sure how well it works for letting friends run it, but I'm sure there's a way.
Well flask/Django etc handle web framework part. This means they are useful if you have any arguments to the bot or you want to see some kind of output of the bot. Just running the bot itself, you could use pythonanywhere.com
Yes. I'd recommend PythonAnywhere to run the program. If you sign up for a free account, you can schedule one task to run daily. I'd also recommend the praw
and pushbullet
libraries to parse reddit and send notifications to your phone, respectively
I've been using the 'free' basic hosting account at pythonanywhere.com
You can choose what version of python / django etc. gets installed, from the blurb on https://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DjangoFriendlyWebHosts:
> Free, one-click Django setup. PythonAnywhere is a full cloud-based development environment, so as well as hosting your Django app, you can edit your code, run scripts, schedule tasks and manage your database, all through our browser-based tools. No need to install anything locally. No need to edit Apache / Nginx config files. >
My first Django project is up there! The free account will probably see you through you first few projects, if you need more power or features you can upgrade for quite reasonable prices.
Hope this helps!
For writing and running Python code, take a look at
For editing Python files on your Google Drive, look at the Neutron Drive plugin
I don't know if you guys have heard but there is also pythonanywhere.com. It has pretty much everything you would expect from a python development environment and has a much simpler cost structure. I am not affiliated with pythonanywhere but I have used their service for a while now and I am very happy with it.
wow, neat! i withdraw all my cast aspersions... was that linode or rackspace?
meanwhile, fighting the browser for who gets ctrl- keys is a big challenge for us... vim is totally usable in firefox, but in chrome, hitting "ctrl-w" to switch between split windows rather tends to close the whole tab, oops.
anyone that fancies a quick play with ours can check out http://www.pythonanywhere.com/learn - no signup required...
With apologies for spam, but see also http://www.pythonanywhere.com. We started off as an online python console, and are moving towards being a fully-featured IDE, hosting platform, HPC platform, and any other kitchen sink items we can get to stick!
nice to see some other players in the space, welcome!