00-1_python-setup-guide

Python Setup Tips

There are several different ways you can install Python and set up your computing environment. Here, I am illustrating my personal preference.

(I am using computers running macOS, but this workflow is similar for Linux machines and may work for other operating systems as well.)

1. Download and install Miniforge

Download miniforge from the GitHub repository here.

Depending on your operating system, this should download either an .sh (macOS, Linux) or .exe file (Windows).

For the .sh file, open your command line terminal and execute the following command

sh ~/Desktop/Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh

where Desktop/ is the folder where the Miniforge installer was downloaded to. On your computer, you may have to replace it with Downloads/.

Next, step through the download instructions, confirming with "Enter".

2. Create a new virtual environment

After the installation was successfully completed, I recommend creating a new virtual environment called dl-fundamentals, which you can do by executing

conda create -n dl-workshop python=3.9

Next, activate your new virtual environment (you have to do it every time you open a new terminal window or tab):

conda activate dl-workshop

Optional: styling your terminal

If you want to style your terminal similar to mine so that you can see which virtual environment is active, check out the Oh My Zsh project.

3. Install new Python libraries

To install new Python libraries, you can now use the conda package installer. For example, you can install JupyterLab and watermark as follows:

conda install jupyterlab watermark

You can also still use pip to install libraries. By default, pip should be linked to your new dl-workshop conda environment:

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Any questions? Please feel free to reach out in the Discussion Forum.