Downloading Python and Anaconda
Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Anaconda, an all-in-one installer.
Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.6 is fine).
For Windows-users: Video Tutorial
- Open https://www.anaconda.com/download/#windows with your web browser.
- Download the Python 3 installer for Windows.
- Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation except make sure to check Make Anaconda the default Python.
For Mac-users: Video Tutorial
- Open https://www.anaconda.com/download/#macos with your web browser.
- Download the Python 3 installer for OS X.
- Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.
Why Python?
Python is a high level object oriented programing language. You can use Python for developing anything from GUI applications, websites, apps, and software to data analysis and visualization. Python, as a high level language, allows you to focus on core functionality of the application by taking care of common programming tasks.
Recommended Reading
The Quick Python Book by .This third revision of Manning's popular The Quick Python Book offers a clear, crisp updated introduction to the elegant Python programming language and its famously easy-to-read syntax. Written for programmers new to Python, this latest edition includes new exercises throughout.
Python Machine Learning Cookbook by This practical guide provides nearly 200 self-contained recipes to help you solve machine learning challenges you may encounter in your daily work. If you're comfortable with Python and its libraries, including pandas and scikit-learn, you'll be able to address specific problems such as loading data, handling text or numerical data, model selection, and dimensionality reduction and many other topics.
Python Data Analysis by This book is for programmers, scientists, and engineers who have knowledge of the Python language and know the basics of data science. It is for those who wish to learn different data analysis methods using Python and its libraries. This book contains all the basic ingredients you need to become an expert data analyst.
Interactive Tools and Lessons
- Learn Python ProgrammingBecome a Python developer. Learn Python programming with these videos.
Python Resources
- O'Reilly for Higher Education This link opens in a new windowVideo tutorials, ranging from beginner to advanced, for Python. Includes hundreds of hours of instructional videos. O’Reilly requires you to close your internet browser tab when you are finished with the resource. When you revisit the resource, in a new tab, your viewing history will be saved.
- Intro to Python WorkshopPowerpoint from Owen luncheon workshop on Python.
- A Primer on Python for Statistical Programming and Data ScienceIn this hands-on tutorial, we will first cover the fundamentals of Python programming, including data structures, control flow, functions, and classes, with particular attention paid to aspects of the language that is idiomatic. The second part of the course will comprise a survey of Python libraries that are relevant for modern data analysis, particularly in the context of data science and probabilistic programming.
- Python Data Science HandbookThe book introduces the core libraries essential for working with data in Python: particularly IPython, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-Learn, and related packages. Familiarity with Python as a language is assumed; if you need a quick introduction to the language itself, see the free companion project, A Whirlwind Tour of Python: it's a fast-paced introduction to the Python language aimed at researchers and scientists.
- Python Homemade Machine LearningThis repository contains examples of popular machine learning algorithms implemented in Python with mathematics behind them being explained. Each algorithm has interactive Jupyter Notebook demo that allows you to play with training data, algorithms configurations and immediately see the results, charts and predictions right in your browser.
