<aside> ‼️ This course does not use / provide support for Jupyter . Use is at your own risk.

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Table of Contents

In this course, we use Python through Anaconda, with VSCode as an editor. This chapter will discuss how to set up, and start writing code using these. Nothing stops you from writing Python code without these things; heck, you can do it in notepad if that has your fancy. To actually run the code that you wrote, your computer needs a "Python interpreter". The interpreter reads the text, “compiles” it (basically translates the code to lower-level operations), and then executes. So, what you’re actually installing is a Python interpreter. You can install that by itself, but we’re using Anaconda for convenience.

🐉 Anaconda

Very briefly, Anaconda is a Python distribution; i.e., it gives you Python, a bunch of pre-installed libraries (other code written in Python that you can use), editors (like Spyder and IDLE), a graphical user interface to download and install new libraries — all in one convenient package. It’s easy to switch Python versions with it (if you have to), and you don’t need to worry about if Windows or MacOS can find your Python install other software like VSCode etc. It standardizes these things, and hence the convenience factor. If in the future you don’t need all this pre-installed bloat, you can also opt for miniconda.

🐲 Installing Python via Anaconda

<aside> ❓ Do I really need to install Python on my system? Everything discussed on this page is available on campus computers, also during the exam. If you plan to exclusively work on campus, the answer is “no”. In all other cases: “yes”.

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<aside> ℹ️ Fresh install? Skip this box. For those of you who had Python and/or VSCode installed prior to Anaconda, adding them to Anaconda might be problematic. Below is a (verbatim) suggestion provided by a former student to manually add VSCode to Anaconda.

1. In Anaconda Navigator → File → Preference.

2. Click on 'Configure Navigator'

3. Add your [VS Code Path] in your 'vscode_path' variable (e.g., in my case: D:\\Users<User>\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code).

4. Set 'vscode_enable' to True.

5. Save it and restart Anaconda Navigator.

If you had Python installed before this course, it's generally recommended to remove it before installing Anaconda. If you can make your installation work with Python and VSCode separately installed: also fine. If you have any other working suggestions, feel free to share them on the Discussion forum.

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To install, simply go to the page below. 👇 Click the big green Download button, install the software, and after open “Anaconda Navigator” to load the main screen.

Anaconda | The World's Most Popular Data Science Platform

Some things to note:

• Windows: there are different installs for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. It’s very unlikely you have a 32-bit Windows install, but if for some reason the default installer throws a related error, click the arrow next to the Download button and try the 32-bit version instead.
• MacOS: there are also different installs for Intel chips and M1/M2 (Apple Silicon) chips. Not sure which one you have? Click the 🍏 logo and “About This Mac”. Here, “Chip” should give you the information you need. Click the arrow next to the Download button to select the appropriate version if this does not work by default.

<aside> 🛠 In some cases Anaconda requires to be updated to work properly.

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Visual Studio Code (VSCode) will need to be installed separately. Go to the page below. 👇 Click the big blue button to install the software for your operating system.