Lab 1

Installs and Setup

Git and Github

Do you have a GitHub account?

Git configuration:

  • Who are you? git config --global user.name "Eli Ben-Michael"
  • How can I reach you? git config --global user.email ebenmichael@berkeley.edu

Can change much more: editor, coloring, etc.

Anaconda

What is Anaconda?

  • A Python distribution
  • An environment manager
  • A package manager

A Python distribution

  • Install Anaconda from the download
  • Open python by typing in python into the shell. Should see something like

Alt

  • Make sure you're using Anaconda's python. If not, open ~/.bashrc and add
export PATH="/home/$USERNAME/anaconda3/bin:$PATH"

An environment manager

An environment is a standalone version of python which you can make changes to without affecting your global system python.

  • Create an environment with Python 3.6 and a few packages for this class: conda create -n stat159 python=3.6 numpy scipy matplotlib
  • To activate the environment:
    • Linux/Mac: source activate stat159
    • Windows: activate stat159
  • To deactivate the environment:
    • Linux/Mac: source deactivate
    • Windows: deactivate

A package manager

  • Add a package (pandas) to the environment
source activate stat159
conda install pandas

Playing with python

Some code to create and plot random data

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
n = 1000
x = np.random.randn(n)
y = x ** 2 - 10 * x + 2 + np.random.randn(n)
plt.scatter(x,y)
plt.show()

Try running this code with

  • The basic interpreter: python
  • The Jupyter console jupyter console
  • In a Jupyer notebook: jupyter notebook

Whirlwind Tour of Python

A good reference on Python that we will be using is A Whirlwind Tour of Python by Jake VanderPlas. The book has a collection of Jupyter notebooks to run through.

Start by cloning the repo:

git clone https://github.com/jakevdp/WhirlwindTourOfPython.git

Then try to run through the notebooks, changing the code yourself.

Loose Ends

Be sure to install Visual Studio Code if you don't have an editor that you already like. Also create an Overleaf Account for collaboration.

Survey

Please complete the survey (Shortened url: http://bit.ly/2vpsNqu)