Installfest - Python Programming Live Online

Windows Instructions

Last updated: January 10, 2020

It’s not easy to get your computer ready for programming, especially for Python. If one does not take great care with building their Python programming environment, this can easily happen, as illustrated by the great XKCD:

Unfortunately this process can be bewildering for a beginner. Luckily, you are not on your own!

There are many amateurish ways to install Python but in this course we will install Python in the most modern and professional way – that is, how it’s installed at actual companies that use Python as their primary programming language!

The Importance of Reading

A word of advice as you progress through this installation guide: Please read every section before typing anything in – I promise that will prevent a lot of pain!

Technical Requirements

This guide is written for Windows 10 (64-bit). Previous generations of Windows are not supported for this course. If you are running an older version of Windows, you must upgrade to Windows 10 before proceeding.

Did you notice we said 64-bit? This may be the first time you’ve heard of the concept of “64-bit”.

A bit of background without getting too technical:

Administrator Privileges Required

You need Administrator Privileges on your machine in order to install software.

If you don’t have administrator privileges (if you are using a work machine, for instance), you will need to speak with your employer about granting you permission to install developer software on your machine, so that you are able to complete the course.

Install Linux Subsystem

Now that you’re fully updated, we are going to install a Linux Subsystem into your Windows machine.

Linux Background

We are not going to go into a lot of technical detail here, but basically the world of Operating Systems (OSes) can be split into two styles: Unix-style (Mac/Linux), and non-Unix style (Windows).

It’s a reality that many professional programmers prefer Unix-style OSes for programming (unless your job is to actually to build Windows-specific programs, of course).

Luckily, in recent times Microsoft has clued in to programmer needs, and implemented a feature called Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in the most recent Windows 10 updates.

WSL allows programmers to install a Linux Subsystem into their Windows machine, which gives them all of the advantages of a Unix-style environment, while continuing to run Windows!

This is a game-changer, and many professional programmers who are stuck with Windows computers are now starting to use this type of setup.

It also helps our course a lot, as for a long time it was not possible to properly support students using Windows. With WSL, it becomes possible to do so, for the first time.

Installation

We will install the most popular version of Linux, called Ubuntu.

Please follow this guide on installing Ubuntu on Windows, written by linuxhint.com.

Before proceeding, take note of the following:

Now, open the guide in a new tab/window and proceed with the installation.

Once it’s installed, open the Ubuntu app.

From now on we will call this app the Terminal.

Enable Cut-and-Paste

To enable cutting and pasting into the Terminal, click the Ubuntu logo in the upper left corner and select the Properties menu item.

Then, put a checkmark next to “Use Ctrl+Shift+C/V as Copy/Paste”.

Voila, you can now copy and paste into the Terminal with ⌃Control+⇧Shift+C and ⌃Control+⇧Shift+V.

Code Editor

Finish installing Ubuntu before proceeding with installing the Code Editor, as the Code Editor will not finish installing properly if Ubuntu is not fully installed first.

Visual Studio Code is probably the most popular code editor as of this writing and it is the one we will use in this course.

You can use another code editor if you prefer, but VS Code will be tightly integrated into in-class examples, and it’s free!

Please download and install it now.

Once it’s installed, launch the app.

Important: When VS Code asks you to install a Remote - WSL extension, click Install!

You can close VS Code after the extension is finished installing.

Finally, check to make sure that the code editor is usable from within the Terminal. Open your Terminal and enter the following:

code -v

It should output something like:

1.40.1
8795a9889db74563ddd43eb0a897a2384129a619
x64

It doesn’t matter if the output is exactly the same, as long as it’s similar.

Create a Working Folder

We’ll need a place to do our work in this course.

On Windows, the best place to do it is in the Documents folder.

First, let’s find out your Windows username.

Run the following in the Terminal:

powershell.exe '$env:UserName'

and it should output your Windows username.

If your Windows username somehow has a space in it, :stop_sign: STOP HERE and contact your instructor for help. Programming tools generally do not expect user names to have spaces, and lots of things will break unexpectedly if you try to proceed.

If your Windows username is one word, then you’re good to continue.

Run the next line in the Terminal.

export WINDOWS_USER=`powershell.exe '$env:UserName' | tr -d '\r'`

and then:

cd /mnt/c/Users/$WINDOWS_USER/Documents

Now that you’re in the Documents folder, create a sub-folder for your development activities:

mkdir dev
cd dev

Verify the present working directory:

pwd

It should show something like /mnt/c/Users/jane/Documents/dev (Depends on your own Windows username, of course).

Let’s make a shortcut for this folder:

echo "DEV=/mnt/c/Users/$WINDOWS_USER/Documents/dev" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Now, it’ll be easy to get back to your Dev folder anytime by typing cd $DEV in the Terminal. (That command won’t actually do anything for now, because you’re already in that folder.)

Install Programming Tools

Update Your Linux Subsystem

Before installing more stuff, let’s completely update your linux subsystem. Even though you just installed it from the App Store, there will already have been new stuff released since they last updated it on the store!

Open the Terminal and run the following:

echo '* libraries/restart-without-asking boolean true' | sudo debconf-set-selections

It will ask you to enter your password, please do so. For security reasons, you won’t see your password as it’s being typed in, so just be careful about typing it in exactly correctly.

Then:

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo apt-get -y autoremove

If it asks you any questions while it’s running, just answer “Yes”.

This may take a while, so feel free to grab a coffee while it’s proceeding.

Git

Check that Git is at the latest version:

git --version

It should output git version 2.17.1.

If it’s not at 2.17.1, upgrade your Git software:

sudo apt-get -y upgrade git

Now set some Git configurations. Replace you@example.com and Your Name with your actual email address and name, of course…

git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global core.editor "code -n --wait"

Pyenv

The most professional Python installation is achieved using Pyenv, as it allows us to avoid version collision problems and upgrade difficulties.

Install Pyenv with the following line:

curl -L https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv-installer/raw/master/bin/pyenv-installer | bash

Now that Pyenv is installed, let’s activate it. This is a multistep process.

First, let’s find out your Linux username. Run this in your Terminal:

whoami

It should output your Linux username. It could very well be different from your Windows username, since we are running Linux on top of Windows!

If your Linux username somehow has a space in it, :stop_sign: STOP HERE and contact your instructor for help.

If not, continue with the next commands.

echo export PATH="/home/${USER}/.pyenv/bin:\$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "eval \"\$(pyenv init -)\"" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "eval \"\$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)\"" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

If you experience some error messages here, :stop_sign: STOP AND DO NOT CONTINUE. Ask your instructor for help.

Install Python

Finally we are ready to install Python!

First, we have to install the prerequisites:

IMPORTANT: This is a looooooooooong line, make sure you copy the entire thing.

sudo apt-get -y install make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python-openssl

Then, we’ll install the latest version of Python. This will take a few minutes!

pyenv install 3.8.1

We shall set this version as the default:

pyenv global 3.8.1

Check to make sure it’s installed properly:

python --version

It should output: Python 3.8.1.

While you’re at it, upgrade pip. This is a tool we’ll be using to install Python packages later.

pip install --upgrade pip

Check to see that the latest version was installed:

pip --version

It should output something like pip 19.3.1 from /home/jane/.pyenv/versions/3.8.1/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pip (python 3.8).

Install Anaconda

Finally, we’ll install Anaconda, which we will need for the Data Science portion of the course.

pyenv install anaconda3-2019.10

Note: This can take 10 minutes or even longer!

Here, we’re installing the October 2019 version of Anaconda3 (The 3 means it’s based on Python 3), which is the latest version as of this writing.

After it’s finished installing, verify that Anaconda installed properly by executing:

PYENV_VERSION=anaconda3-2019.10 conda --version

and the Terminal should output conda 4.7.12 (minor differences are fine).

Fin!

Protip: You can exit the Terminal by typing exit in the Terminal.

Installation Success!

Now Python is installed and we’re ready to take on the course!