HW0.6: Install Python and Our Various Python Packages

We use some specialized and finicky Python packages in this class, and they're very difficult to install correctly on your own. Fortunately, there's a Python distribution called Canopy that makes everything Just Work™. Everyone in this class must use Canopy.*

1. Go to the Canopy licensing page, make sure the “For Academics” tab is selected, and then click on the blue “Request your license” button on the right-hand side. (We need some advanced packages that are not provided in the free “Canopy Express” version, so we need to use our PA credentials to get the full version.)
2. On the next page, create an account using “Phillips Academy Andover” as your Organization and your PA email address. Don't give them your phone number; that's creepy.
3. Check your email, activate your account, and then repeat step 1. You should now see a box saying “You have an academic license already!”. Below that is a link to “download Enthought Canopy”. Click it, download the installer, run the installer, and then delete the installer.
4. Once it's installed, run the Canopy program. It will ask you some configuration questions; the defaults should be fine. Make sure you say that you do want to use Canopy for your command-line Python version.
5. After confirming all that, you should get the Canopy welcome screen, with a few different buttons. Click on “Editor” and confirm that the Canopy editor, with an interactive prompt in the bottom pane, pops up. Type print "Hello" at the prompt, and it should say hi back to you. If that works, Canopy is installed — keep reading below for your hand-in.

Hand-in: follow these steps and then take a screenshot.

1. Open a new terminal.

2. On the command line, enter the command python to start up the Python interactive interpreter. Then enter the commands given after each >>> below. You should see output similar to what the example shows. If it differs greatly (for example, if sys.prefix evaluates to a non-Canopy path), your configuration has an issue that you'll need to resolve before moving on.

   Enthought Canopy Python 2.7.10 | 64-bit | (default, Oct 21 2015, 09:09:19) 
   [GCC 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.6)] on darwin
   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
   >>> import sys
   >>> sys.prefix
   '/Users/jmiles/Library/Enthought/Canopy_64bit/User'
   >>> import numpy
   >>> numpy.__version__
   '1.9.2'
   >>> numpy.eye(2)
   array([[ 1.,  0.],
          [ 0.,  1.]])
   >>> import matplotlib
   >>> matplotlib.__version__
   '1.4.3'
   >>> from PySide import QtGui
   >>> app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
   >>> wid = QtGui.QWidget()
   >>> wid.resize(250,150)
   >>> wid.setWindowTitle('Simple')
   >>> wid.show()
   >>> app.exec_()
   

   A little gray window should pop up. Take a screenshot showing this window and the contents of your Python session. Then close the window and press Control+D to exit out of the Python interactive interpreter.