[promer]

One suggestion that someone endorsed in another comment is to use VS Code. This would not be my preferred choice, but it would be useful to run an experiment in which students who are new to code start by installing it and following its suggestions about how to configure a working environment. One advantage with this approach is that it introduces students to a text editor.

A second alternative is the Idle environment that is included with every official install of Python from python.org. I have not used it much and I've never tried to teach a course with it. But it comes from the most trustworthy source in this complicated environment.

I'd be very interested in hearing about experience using these to start learning from the very beginning or using them to teach a course for people who are just getting started.