Installing and starting Python

For this course, you will initially need to start the Spyder integrated development environment, and we do most of the work inside this environment.

Later, we will also use Jupyter notebooks.

Minimum installation requirements: Spyder

The Spyder project provides a pre-packaged Spyder installation (see https://docs.spyder-ide.org/current/installation.html#downloading-and-installing) which brings its own python and collection of libraries we need for this module (such as numpy, scipy, matplotlib, pandas, and sympy).

This provides all the tools you need for the beginning of the course. (The additional tools you may need later are jupyterlab and pytest.)

Full Installation requirements

You need to install python (version 3.12 or 3.13 recommended) and the following python packages:

  • spyder

  • numpy

  • scipy

  • pandas

  • matplotlib

  • sympy

  • ipython

  • pytest

  • jupyterlab

If you you know how to do that, go ahead and do it. Then Check your installation.

If you do not know how to do that, read on.

Installation options

To install the python packages, there are multiple options:

  • use packages that your operating system (such as Ubuntu, Debian, …) provides

  • use dedicated packaging tools such as conda-forge (mini-forge) or pixi to install them

  • install python (somehow), and use python’s pip install to install the packages.

If all of this is new to you, we recommend you try the relatively young pixi project.

Pixi

  • install pixi from https://pixi.sh/

  • create a subdirectory where you want to store you python files. Let’s assume we call it py4cs.

  • open a terminal/shell and navigate to that directory (for example cd py4cs)

  • initialise a pixi environment by running pixi init .

  • install the required packages with pixi add python spyder numpy matplotlib sympy pandas ipython pytest jupyterlab scipy

To use the python tools you just installed, you need to type pixi shell in the py4cs directory. Afterwards, you can start python with python and the Spyder IDE with spyder.

Anaconda distribution

The use of the anaconda distribution may require paying of license fees. From https://www.anaconda.com/pricing: “Use of Anaconda’s Offerings at an organization of more than 200 employees requires a Business or Enterprise license. “

We recommend you install Spyder by other means.

If you are familiar with conda, you can use the mini-forge installer from conda-forge. Or you use pixi to download the same conda-forge packages.

Check your installation

You can download this test-python-installation.py file and run it from the command prompt like this (assuming you have the installed python interpreter in the search path):

python test-python-installation.py

You should see a table of installed packages, looking something like this (it is okay if the version numbers are different):

Running using Python 3.12.8 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Dec  5 2024, 14:19:53) [Clang 18.1.8 ]
Testing Python version-> Python     OK 3.12.8
Testing numpy...      -> numpy      OK 2.2.0
Testing scipy...      -> scipy      OK 1.14.1
Testing pandas...     -> pandas     OK 2.2.3
Testing matplotlib... -> matplotlib OK 3.10.0
Testing sympy...      -> sympy      OK 1.13.3
Testing pytest...     -> pytest     OK 8.3.4
Completed 2024-12-20 12:58:57.135614 in 10.7 seconds.