Setup

Setup

This lesson is designed to be run on a personal computer. All of the software and data used in this lesson are freely available online, and instructions on how to obtain them are provided below.

Install Python with Anaconda

We recommend using the Anaconda installer, which installs Python along with lots of packages which we will need in the lessons.

  1. Open https://www.anaconda.com/download.
  2. Download the Anaconda installer (if you are not sure which version to choose, you probably want the Graphical Installer).
  3. Run the Anaconda Installer. Make sure to say yes to Add Anaconda to my PATH environment variable.

Launch JupyterLab

This course will be taught using JupyterLab, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. After installing Anaconda, follow the instructions here to launch JupyterLab: https://www.anaconda.com/docs/getting-started/guides/how-to-open-jupyterlab#.

Obtain lesson materials

  1. Download python-novice-inflammation-data.zip and python-novice-inflammation-code.zip.
  2. Create a folder called swc-python on your Desktop.
  3. Move downloaded files to swc-python.
  4. Unzip the files.

You should see two folders called data and code in the swc-python directory on your Desktop.

Note

Once you have successfully installed Anaconda, launched JupyterLab, and downloaded the lesson materials, your setup is complete.

Other Python environments

Although this course uses JupyterLab, there are other ways to run Python that you may want to explore, including: