Technical notes

Python Distribution

We highly recommend to use the Anaconda or the Mamba Python distribution. Between these two options, Mamba is the top choice since it is much faster than Anaconda. Follow one of the following instructions to install Anaconda or Mamba. Do NOT install both distributions! Your Python version for this class should be 3.5 or higher.

Anaconda

Follow the installation guide for your operating system here.

Mamba

1. Download Mambaforge installer acoording to your operating system here.
2. Execute the installer:

• Unix-like platforms (Mac OS & Linux):

  Open the terminal and call

  bash [Mambaforge-installer].sh
  

  where [Mambaforge-installer] should be replaced by your installer, e.g. Mambaforge-Linux-x86_64 or Mambaforge-MacOSX-x86_64.

• Windows:

  Double click the installer on the file browser.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or Editor recommendations

Although it is possible to write Python code using a conventional text editor, an integrated development environment can boost your programming experience greatly. Therefore, we shall show you some recommendations of IDEs and specialised editors here.

• Jupyter Notebook

  • will be automatically available after you have installed Anaconda/Miniconda.
  • if you are not yet familiar with Jupyter notebooks, you can find many tutorials in the web, e.g. Tutorial.

• Spyder

  • is a full Python IDE with the focus on scientific development.
  • will be automatically installed if you install the full Anaconda package.

• Visual Studio Code

  • is a more lightweight text editor for coding purposes and one of the most used ones.
  • Although it is officially not a real IDE, it has almost all features of an IDE.

• PyCharm

  • commercial (free for students) IDE with a lot of functionalities.
  • is usually more suitable for very large and complex Python projects and can be too cumbersome for small projects like the ones used here in the lecture.

• Vim/NeoVim

  • command-line text editor which is usually pre installed on all unix-like computers.
  • can be very unwieldy at the beginning, since Vim has a very large number of keyboard shortcuts and is not as beginner friendly as a typical IDE or Jupyter notebooks.
  • is extremely configurable and can be adapted with a little effort to a very extensive and comfortable editor.
  • still one of the most used editors.

Dependencies

During the lecture we will use different Python libraries, which can be conveniently installed via a package manager. The Anaconda distribution comes with the package manager conda while the Mamba distribution has mamba. Please install these packages by executing the following commands in your terminal.

Note: If you are using Windows, execute the commands in Anaconda Prompt or Miniforge Prompt that comes with your Anaconda or Mambaforge installation.