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Python installation

To complete the homework assignments, you are allowed to use either the terminal (command line) or any Python IDEs with Python 3.8.

Python installation

It is HIGHLY recommended to install Python 3.8 by using the most recent Anaconda, which is basically a distribution of Python for scientific computing and aims to simplify package management and deployment, and most importantly, Anaconda ships with most packages (including Numpy, Scipy, and Matplotlib) which are commonly used.

For macOS and Windows users, here is the link to download the Anaconda installer: https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual Links to an external site.

For Linux users, please follow the instructions in the link to install the Anaconda: https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/install/linux Links to an external site.

If you are not familiar with the terminal (command line), we HIGHLY recommend you to install PyCharm, a Python IDE, as PyCharm not only has a friendly graphical user interface, but also provides many advanced features including code completion, error highlighting, debugging, visualization, and interactive tools, etc. 

 

PyCharm Installation

Here is the link to download PyCharm: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm (Links to an external site.)

And if you choose PyCharm Professional Edition, you may be asked for the license number. However, the professional edition is free for the University community. You need to register an account on JetBrain (Links to an external site.) with your UMN email address and sign up for a student license. 

For Windows and macOS users, please see the instructions for installation at the following link:

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/installation-guide.html

For Linux users, you might need to install it manually, please see the instructions below:

  1. Download the pycharm-*.tar.gz from the above link, and unpack it to a different folder.
tar xfz pycharm-*.tar.gz -C <new_archive_folder>
  1. Switch to the bin subdirectory.
cd <new archive folder>/pycharm-*/bin
  1. Run pycharm.sh from the bin subdirectory.
sh pycharm.sh
  1. Follow the instructions to finish the installation. (License number is required for PyCharm Professional Edition).

 

Finally, to use Anaconda in the PyCharm, please follow the instructions in the following link: 

https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/user-guide/tasks/pycharm Links to an external site.

 

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