Python Workshop Basics (Older -- 2014)

Python Installation Basics

To follow along during the tutorial, you will need to do the following :

1. Download and install the Anaconda python distribution: http://continuum.io/downloads

    

2. On Mac and Linux, include the path to the Anaconda bin directory in your .bashrc file.

   export PATH="<path_to_anaconda_bin>:$PATH"
   If Anaconda is installed in /home/johndoe/anaconda, then this will be:
   export PATH="/home/johndoe/anaconda/bin:$PATH"

3. On Windows, it should appear in the Start Menu as soon as Anaconda is installed. You can also access the binaries from the command prompt.

Helpful links on Anaconda, ipython notebooks etc:

http://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/faq.html

http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/catherinedevlin/mpwfw_exercises/blob/master/setup.windows.ipynb

http://opentechschool.github.io/python-data-intro/core/notebook.html

Tutorial Materials

The rest of this page assumes you have installed Anaconda and various python binaries are available in a terminal (Mac and Linux) or command prompt (Windows).

Attached below are the Ipython notebooks for the tutorial. You are not required to have these unless you are trying to follow along. If you download these, put them in the same directory.

On windows, the simplest option is to put these files in the "Ipython Notebooks" directory in the "My Documents" directory under "Documents" (i.e Documents --> My Documents --> IPython Notebooks).

You can open Ipython Notebook on various OSs as follows:

On Mac and LInux, open a terminal (and on Windows, open a command prompt) and change to the directory where your notebooks are. Then type:

ipython notebook

from the directory where you have all the following files (you need to have Anaconda bin directory in the path). Once the ipython server and the browser are up, you will see the files with 'ipynb' extension in the dashboard. Clicking on it will open it.

(On windows, there should be an ipython notebook launcher under Anaconda in the Start Menu. However, the better option is to open the notebook as described above.)

python-session1-basics.ipynb

python-session2-numpy.ipynb

python-session3-numpy-projects.ipynb

07122012_EDU_hm2_jfk_main.jpg — For the PCA project

custom.css — for changing the appearance of the notebook (optional)