University of Wisconsin-Madison


Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, 3rd Floor Teaching Lab

August 28-29, 2013
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Alternate Installation Options

For this bootcamp, we intend to have all learners login remotely to a server that will be prepared with the correct environment. Instructions on how to prepare your laptop for this are available on our boot camp web page.

Below are some other options that you may be interested in for the boot camp or for the long term. Please note that we can only provide limited support for these options on the day of the boot camp. For this reason, make sure to also complete any necessary steps from our standard setup at the link above.

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.

SSH to Your Own Server

If you have your own remotely-accessible server, or one that belongs to your research group, you may prefer to do the boot camp exercises in that location. You will need the following software installed, which is the same set we have installed on our boot camp server: bash, a text editor (we have vi, emacs, and nano), ack-grep, git, and a recent version of Enthought Python Distribution (EPD, follow the subscription links for their free academic license).

Other Options

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.

Bash

Mac

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).

Code Editor

Mac

We recommend Text Wrangler or Sublime Text.

Windows

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

Linux

Kate is one option for Linux users.

Python

Installing everything you need on your own can be a bit difficult so we recommend just installing the Enthought Python Distribution, which comes in free and academic versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

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


Contact

This workshop will be presented by revered faculty and staff: Paul Wilson, Lauren Michael, and others TBA. For more information contact info@software-carpentry.org.