Software Installation

Please follow the instructions below. If you have trouble installing things, that’s OK – we can help. Just be sure to download the files, because some of them are quite large.

Quick guide

1. Download and install VirtualBox
2. Download this BIG file and import it into VirtualBox.
3. Download and install Anaconda CE.
4. If on Windows, install Git Bash
5. If on Mac OS X, either install XCode and the command line tools, OR (easier!) just install Git.

5. Choose a code editor, below, and install that.

Links and more details

Virtual Machine

To give everyone a consistent, pre-configured environment we provide a Linux virtual machine. Install VirtualBox and download this virtual machine image.

Load the VM into VirtualBox by doing Import Appliance and loading the .ova file.

Other Options than the virtual machine

To complete the entire workshop you need several things: a Bash shell, git, a code editor (though any plain text editor will work in a pinch), and a scientific Python installation that includes the IPython Notebook, NumPy, and matplotlib.

Even if you plan to install things yourself please download VirtualBox and the virtual machine as a backup. It can be extremely difficult to get everything set up correctly, and the virtual machine almost always works.

Bash

Mac:

No installation needed; the default shell in Mac OS X is bash.

Windows:

Install Git Bash following the instructions here.

Linux:

The default shell is usually bash but if not you can get to bash by opening a terminal and typing “bash”.

Git

Mac:

Install Xcode and the command line tools (from the Download preferences pane) or install just git.

Windows:

Install Git Bash following the instructions here.

Linux:

If git is not already available on your machine you can try to install it via your distro’s package manager (e.g. apt-get). We can help you with this at the workshop.

Code Editor

Mac:

We recommend Text Wrangler, Sublime Text, or Text Mate 2.

Windows:

Notepad++ is a popular free code editor for Windows.

Linux:

Kate and gedit are options for Linux users.

Python

We recommend the all-in-one scientific Python installer Anaconda CE. Installation on Mac and Linux requires using the shell and if you aren’t comfortable doing the installation yourself just download the installer and we’ll help you at the boot camp.

For other options check the Python4Astronomers page on installing scientific Python.

Technical details

See: http://software-carpentry.org/setup/

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