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SETUP.md

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Course Setup

Complete the following steps before the first class meeting.

Note: Some tasks may cause errors or require additional settings or configuration. This is to be expected. Google, StackOverflow, and your classmates can be helpful, as instructional staff do not have the capacity for desktop support. You may already have some of these completed from previous classes.

Services

  • Create a GitHub account if you do not already have one.
  • Create an AWS Account. This requires payment for any services used. I recommend buying a prepaid credit card ($50-$100 max) and using it to create your new Amazon Web Services account with the “Free Tier.” This course should incur $30-40 of charges at the most.
  • Create a free Docker account to use with Docker Desktop.

Software

  • MacOS users: Find the Terminal app (in Applications --> Utilities). You may want to add it to your dock.
  • Windows users: Install and set up WSL, the Windows Subsystem for Linux. The default WSL installation will create an Ubuntu environment for you. The username and password you create within WSL does not have to match your Windows username/password. Be sure to complete the WSL installation before you install VS Code.
  • Install Docker Desktop on your laptop and sign in using the Docker account you created above.
  • Install the git command line for your OS. Windows users may want to install it both in Windows and within WSL.
  • Install jq for your OS.
  • Install VS Code, the free IDE (integrated development environment) in your primary OS. (That is, Windows users install VS Code on the Windows side, not in WSL.) The links below will open each plugin page within VS Code; then click on "Install" from that page.
  • Alternatively, install the UVA Data Science Extension Pack plugin from the SDS. This will install all the above extensions plus a few extras.

Python

  • Find Python3 on your laptop. Version 3.9 or higher is preferable (3.12 is the current release, 3.7 has already reached its end of life and 3.8 is close to that). You can see what version you have installed from your terminal:

      $ python3 -V

    If you do not have Python installed, then:

  • MacOS users install from Python.org or by using homebrew.

  • Windows users install from Python.org.

  • Windows users will also develop within WSL, where you can install Python3 with:

      $ sudo apt update
  $ sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip

    Once you have a working version of Python on your laptop you need to configure VS Code with the path to your local Python. Try creating a sample Python project and making this connection yourself.