Basic Setup - tested on OSX

Overview

Teaching: 30 min
Exercises: 30 min

Questions

How do I get started in scientific programing

Objectives

Learn how to use command line tools

Install software you need to do scientific programing

0. Back up your machine

We are going to be messing with your operating system at some level so it is extremely wise to do a complete backup of your machine to an external drive right now.

Also turn off automatic updates. Operating system updates can mess with your setup. Generally, back up before doing updates so you can revert if necessary.

1. Open a unix terminal window

First figure out how to open a terminal on your system. The Carpentries Shell Training has a section that explains this

This should be easy on Linux and OSX but a bit more complicated in Windows.

2. Learn how to use the Unix Shell

There is a nice tutorial from the Carpentries at: Unix Shell Basics.

It tells you how to start a terminal session in Windows, Mac OSX and Unix systems.

Please do the unix shell tutorial to learn about the basic command line.

3. Install some basic tools

You are going to need to install some common tools on your local machine

1. Install Git

Github is a repository for shared code. It is also a good place to back up your code and share with others. You will need to set up an account if you want to store things there. For now we are just going to use it to grab other people’s software so you don’t need to set up an account yet.

Start out by doing the setup/install section of the tutorial at https://swcarpentry.github.io/git-novice/02-setup.html to get started. You can come back and do the full tutorial later.

2. Get a compiler/code editor

Although you will mainly be using python to code to begin with, most HEP code is actually C++ and it is good to have access to a C++ compiler. Bonus is that you normally get a good editor as well.

OSX

Compiler/editor: On OSX, you should install Xcode from the App store. It will take a lot of disk space. When you try to use it it will ask you to install command line tools. Do so.

Compiler/editor: Even though Xcode is what you use to compile and has an editor, many people prefer to use the Visual Studio Code application from Microsoft for editing/testing code.

You can also use vim or emacs if you are old school.