How to set up a Python development environment
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A Python development environment is a folder which you keep your code in, plus a "virtual environment" which lets you install 
additional library dependencies for that project without those polluting the rest of your laptop.

    mkdir my-new-python-project
    cd my-new-python-project
    virtualenv --python=python2.7 venv
    # This will create a my-new-python-project/venv folder
    touch .gitignore
    subl .gitignore
    # Add venv to your .gitignore

Now any time you want to work on your project, you need to "activate your virtual environment". Do that like this:

    cd my-new-python-project
    source venv/bin/activate

You can tell it is activated because your terminal prompt will now look like this:

    (venv) computer:my-new-python-project user$ 

Note the (venv) bit at the start.

Once it is activated, any time you run the "python" or "pip" commands it will be running the special custom versions in your venv folder.

You could also run them without activating the virtual environment like this:

    venv/bin/python
    venv/bin/pip

To install new python libraries, use pip like this:

    pip install requests
    pip install ipython

It's always a good idea to install ipython.