Windows
The easiest way to get started using Python is to download Anaconda. (Choose version 3.??)
After the download completes, run the installer. You should notice that a new application appears by the name of “Spyder”. Refer to my python book to get started using python.
Mac
While you can use Anaconda on a Mac, my personal preference when I code is to work at the command line. (If you don’t know what that means, we should talk one-on-one)
Mac OS X comes with Python 2.7 out of the box. However, I recommend that you use version 3 of python. To verify that python is already installed, open a Terminal window and type
python --version
If python is installed, you should see what version it is. You can also try:
python3 --version
to see if python version 3 is installed.
We’ll use an application called brew for the installation. To install brew, open a Terminal window and type:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Once that is finished, you can use brew to install python like this:
brew install python3
Installing Libraries
Python comes packaged with something called PIP (recursive acronym: “pip installs packages”) that is a great tool for managing python libraries. It automatically handles all of the dependies associated with library installs (i.e. I want to install library A, but oh wait library A needs libraries B and C to work) and is a must for any python user. You can use pip to install a python library like this:
pip install matplotlib
You can uninstall a package like this:
pip uninstall matplotlib