If you're just getting started with coding for the first time, this article will be helpful. If you've ever installed a package on your computer via the command line, you won't need this tutorial.
A shell is your computer's command line. It's basically an interface that lets you talk to your computer through text commands (just like in the olden days!) as opposed to clicking or tapping on stuff.
A lot of the coolest software and code out there doesn't come with a graphical user interface that you can interact with. In many cases, you have to feed in code and let the computer spit out the info you need. This can be done through a shell. In the case of machine learning, you might install a package defining some terms and commands for your computer. Then, for example, you'd use some of those commands to train your computer how to categorize images and label them correctly.
Go to your Applications folder. Inside that folder is a folder called Utilities. Inside that folder is an app called Terminal. Start it up!
Welcome to the other side of your computer. It might look a bit scary now, but don't worry! Now we're going to install a couple of useful packages: pip and virtualenv. Note: There's a good chance that your Mac already comes with pip, so try typing pip in Terminal first! If it doesn't return an error then skip you can skip ahead to the virtualenv section.
Pip
First, type easy_install pip
pip is a tool you'll use to install a lot of packages for your computer. Not as easy as double clicking to install, but it's not too bad.
Virtualenv
Once this is finished, type pip install virtualenv
virtualenv is a package that lets you do all of your coding and development in a single folder, or virtual environment, on your computer. This is useful because:
- If you mess something up in your code, you won't mess your computer up.
- If you're working on different projects that need different software to work, you can keep them in different
virtualenvs, which keeps stuff neat and tidy.
Now it's time to create your first virtualenv! Think of a catchy name for your folder, like "my_coding_stuff" (all lowercase and one word!)
Then, type virtualenv followed by the name you chose for your virtual environment. For example, cd my_coding_stuff
Awesome! Check our your virtual environment by typing cd followed by the name you chose for your virtual environment. On the next line, type source bin/activate to activate the virtual environment!
Congratulations! You can now safely code within this environment.
The first step is to install Python, a programming language that's used a lot in computer science, biology, and statistics. To get Python, go to the Python website, scroll to the bottom, and click on "Windows x86 executable installer". Then install Python as you would install any other app.
Once that's finished, search (in the Start menu or through Cortana) for an app called Command Prompt. Start it up!
Welcome to the other side of your computer. It might look a bit scary now, but don't worry! Now we're going to install a useful package: virtualenv. To do so, type the following code:
pip install virtualenv
pip install virtualenvwrapper-win
virtualenv is a package that lets you do all of your coding and development in a single folder, or virtual environment, on your computer. This is useful because:
- If you mess something up in your code, you won't mess your computer up.
- If you're working on different projects that need different software to work, you can keep them in different
virtualenvs, which keeps stuff neat and tidy.
Now think of a cool name for your virtual environment - just make sure it's all lowercase and one word! For example, "my_coding_stuff"
Now type mkvirtualenv followed by the name you've just thought of, for example mkvirtualenv my_coding_stuff. Then, enter the folder where you'll be coding by typing cd followed by the name of your environment, for example cd my_coding_stuff. The last step is to activate the environment (you have to do this every time you enter the environment!) by typing .\scripts\activate. If it worked, you should see something like (my_coding_stuff) at the beginning of your prompt.
Congratulations! You can now safely code within this environment.
More stuff coming soon!