Contents

Windows

Windows

Python

We recommend installing a complete scientific python distribution. One of these is Anaconda.

Please download and install Anaconda (Python 3.8 version).

Sophos

To use the IPython notebook on a Windows computer with Sophos anti-virus installed it may be necessary to open additional ports allowing communication between the notebook and its server. The solution is:

  • open your Sophos Endpoint Security and Control Panel from your tray or start menu

  • Select Configure > Anti-virus > Authorization from the menu at the top

  • Select the websites tab

  • click the Add button and add 127.0.0.1 and localhost to the Authorized websites list

  • restart computer (or just restart the IPython notebook)

Git

Install the GitHub Desktop Client. This comes with both a GUI client as well as the Git Bash terminal client which we will use during the course. In some instances Git Bash may need to be installed separately. In order to use conda with Git Bash follow the instructions here

You’ll know it has worked when you can open a Git Bash terminal (the window should have a title that starts with MINGW32) and get the Git version by running

git --version

which should show that you have a recent copy of Git. If your version is more than 18 months old, please update it.

C++ compiler

In order to use Cython in the “Programming for Speed” module, you may need to install a C++ compiler, see here for more details.

GitHub

For the Git part of the course, you require access to GitHub. You will need to sign up and follow either the GitHub Setup using the Command Line or GitHub Setup using the Desktop Client instructions, below.

GitHub Setup using the Desktop Client

  1. Signing in to the GitHub Desktop Client should automatically set-up SSH based authentication for the terminal client

  2. Configure the default terminal client (there are three different flavours of terminal on Windows: Windows CMD (DOS like), Windows Powershell, and BASH) to use BASH, as this most closely resembles the Linux and macOS terminal used by other students:

    1. In the Desktop Client, select Tools

    2. Then Options

    3. Default Shell

    4. Git Bash

Editor

Unless you already use a specific editor which you are comfortable with we recommend using one of the following:

Using any of these to edit text files including code should be straight forward. Visual Studio Code has integrations with Git Bash and the Python prompt that you may want to configure.

Testing your install

Check this works by opening the Github shell. Once you have a terminal open, type

which code

which should produce readout similar to /c/Program Files (x86)/Code/Code.exe

Also verify that typing:

code

opens the editor and then close it again.

Also test that

which git

produces some output like /bin/git. The which command is used to figure out where a given program is located on disk.

Telling Git about your editor

Now we need to update the default editor used by Git.

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

Note that it is not obvious how to copy and paste text in a Windows terminal including Git Bash. Copy and paste can be found by right clicking on the top bar of the window and selecting the commands from the drop down menu (in a sub menu). Alternatively the keyboard shortcuts are ctrl+insert for copy and shift+insert for paste.

Testing Python

Confirm that the Python installation has worked by typing:

python -V

Which should result in details of your installed Python version. This should print the installed version of the Python and Git confirming that both are installed at working correctly. You should now have a working version of Git, Python, and your chosen editor, all accessible from your shell.

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