[pydata-outreach-staff] Laptop setup guide, and questions

[Chang She]

On Dec 11, 2012, at 4:32 PM, Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Dec 2012, Asheesh Laroia wrote:
> 
>> I think something short should be fine for us, but I definitely do want people to be fully prepared by the time lecture starts. That way, we minimize the number of environment-related questions that the lecturer gets, and let him focus on the core teaching he wanted to do.
>> 
>> So here's an outline for what I think we'd need before the lecture:
>> 
>> * Make sure the computer has Python installed
>> 
>> * Make sure you know how to get into a Python interpreter prompt
>> 
>> * A text editor installed that they know how to use
>> 
>> * Pandas installed locally
> 
> I've written an initial version of this, and I used git as the wiki suggests. I've put my content here: https://github.com/paulproteus/PyData-Workshop-Sprint/wiki/Laptop%20setup
> 
> I tried to do a push to the original repo, and I got this error message:
> 
> $ git push
> 
> ERROR: Permission to svaksha/PyData-Workshop-Sprint.wiki.git denied to paulproteus.
> fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
> 
> Given that, vid, would you grant me permission to edit the wiki on Github, via granting me permission to write to the repo?
> 
> Otherwise I can either:
> 
> * attach my suggested changes here on the mailing list, or
> 
> * edit on the website.
> 
> For now I'm editing on my fork here: https://github.com/paulproteus/PyData-Workshop-Sprint/wiki/Laptop%20setup
> 
> I'm happy to remove the fork, and merge back into mainline once I have push access; the fork is just a convenient way for people to see the contents while I'm writing, and while we figure out access. https://github.com/paulproteus/PyData-Workshop-Sprint/wiki does indicate to any possible other visitors that this isn't the real site.
> 
> I'll use whatever works, but would be happiest with push access so I can keep enjoying the git life. Just let me know and I'll do it whatever way works for everyone.
> 
> Thanks! And comments welcome on the actual text!
> 
> -- Asheesh.
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I'm new to the list so sorry if this has already been discussed, but in my experience the easiest way to setup Python would be to use Enthough Python Distribution or Anaconda CE from Continuum.io (both free). It already includes everything so you don't need to mess with it too much.

You do need to install the latest for pandas and build it from source. It's easy for linux users. For mac users you have to have Xcode installed with command line tools to get gcc. Windows users should just run and hide.

j/k windows users have 2 options, either Visual Studios 2008 Express (free) or MinGW (also free). Configuring those things can take some googling though.

Finally, people need to be comfortable with 'easy_install' and/or 'pip'