COMP 200 Resources

[Rice University]

Software Installations

On this page you will find installation instructions for much of the software used in the course.

Overview

You should have the following software installed, in the following order:

  1. (Required) Enthought Python Distribution  -- the main Python development system that will be used.
  2. (RecommendedA better Python editor, e.g. Notepad++, TextWrangler, Emacs, etc. -- this will make your life a lot easier for larger programs.
  3. (Recommended)  Integrating Python with your editor -- this will make is a lot easier to run the iPython interactive Python prompt to run and test your programs.

Enthought Python Distribution Installation: 

Download the appropriate version of EPD for your system:    Click here for downloads  (Be sure to log in with your NetID!)

Caution: There have been reports of the Enthought installer not working properly on systems that use Unicode file names, e.g. Asian-language versions of Windows.   Please see the course staff if you have problems with any installation!


Better editors for Python

The IDLE environment that comes with EPD is wonderful for experimenting with small examples. Once you start writing larger programs, you might want to save your work and use just the IDLE editor, or one of these editors described below.

To help reduce the problems associated with mixing tabs and spaces, please configure your editor to replace tabs with spaces!


Integrating Python and your Editor

To make sure that the code files you have developed are available to Python and to minimize confusion about paths and pathnames, we have developed two applications described below. We recommend you install them now, before writing your first program.    After EDP has finished installing, you may perform the following enhancements to your system:

 

 

 

 


Thanks to Dr. Devika Subramanian for much of these instructions!