The Toolbox

"Welcome, traveler!" Py exclaims. "Before we embark on this quest, we must equip you with the proper tools. You wouldn't slay a dragon with a spoon, would you?"

Getting Python

You can download Python from python.org. But if you don’t already have Python, I recommend instead installing the Anaconda distribution, which already includes most of the libraries that you need to do data science.

The Version Dilemma

As I write this, the latest version of Python is 3.4. At DataSciencester, however, we use old, reliable Python 2.7. Python 3 is not backward-compatible with Python 2, and many important libraries only work well with 2.7. The data science community is still firmly stuck on 2.7, which means we will be, too. Make sure to get that version.

(Note: In the modern era, you should definitely use Python 3! But for the sake of this story, we remember the old ways.)

The Package Manager: pip

If you don’t get Anaconda, make sure to install pip, which is a Python package manager that allows you to easily install third-party packages (some of which we’ll need).

It’s also worth getting IPython, which is a much nicer Python shell to work with. (If you installed Anaconda then it should have come with pip and IPython.)

Installation Check

Just run:

pip install ipython

and then search the Internet for solutions to whatever cryptic error messages that causes.