Python & Jupyter Install

Warning

Please use Python 3.8 for this course

Newer versions (3.9 and 3.10) may give you headaches as modules don’t work properly. (I haven’t explicitly checked, but documentation for a few libraries, like numpy, seems to suggest trouble so let’s stick with 3.8). Python 2.x has major language changes and should be avoided entirely in this course (and everywhere else).

I suggest Windows and Mac users install via Miniconda because it easily allows one to select their python version. You can access Python via the Miniconda Command Prompt (where you have pip and, once installed, jupyter notebook). Linux users have python installed by default and can open a terminal to use the same commands.

You can install many of the modules needed for the course with:

pip install numpy scipy matplotlib seaborn jupyter

Afterwards, at the same prompt you can type:

jupyter notebook

to open up a Jupyter Notebook and get working.