There have been inconsistencies in downloading Python files from a website on different people's computers. Here's how we can do things properly.
1 Use the Chrome browser. I think much of the problems came from using Safari (on Macs) or IE (on Windows). Even if you don't use it for everything, you should use Chrome for this class for downloading files. If you don't already have it, click here.
2 If the file is on Github, then
- Go to the file.
- Click on Raw in the upper right.
- Click Ctrl-s or Command-s on Macs to save.
3 You want to verify with your File Manager (Finder on Mac, My Computer or File Explorer on Windows) that the file you downloaded has either the .py or .ipynb at the very end, depending on the type of file you download. Sometimes, the file will have .py.txt or .ipynb.txt at the end and you want to remove that .txt part.
On Windows, you can do this in File Manager by doing XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Mac, you can do this with XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
You may find there are similar issues when you download files from Google Classroom.
Good luck!