Summary and Setup

This is a new lesson built with The Carpentries Workbench.

This lesson teaches how to create and publish packages in Python. We assume a basic understanding of Python, and assume learners are comfortable using simple commands in a Bash shell. The lesson assumes learners are working in Linux, but we hope to update this to include other operating systems in future. For the final lesson on publishing Python code, it will also be helpful to understand how to use Git to manage software projects. A lesson on Git is available with the Software Carpentires.

Some sections are marked ‘extra’, and these contain non-essential information that may be of interest to some learners. These sections do not need to be covered in order to understand the core content of the course.

Python environments

In this workshop we will use conda to manage Python environments and install packages.

Our preferred flavour of conda is provided by Miniforge3, but you could also use Miniconda.

Windows

Windows users will need to install GitBash which is a linux-like terminal that comes pre-installed with Git. You will use conda from within the GitBash shell.

Install: - GitBash - Miniforge3

Windows checks:

  • Open the GitBash terminal app.
  • Check for (base) prefix in your prompt.
  • If (base) is not present, open the “miniforge prompt” app and run conda init bash
  • Run conda --version

Mac

Install: - Miniforge3

Mac checks:

  • Open a terminal and run git --version. You may be prompted to install git.
  • Run conda --version

Configure Git

If you are setting up Git for the first time, you will need to set your user name and email.

BASH 

$ git config --global user.name "Alfredo Linguini"
$ git config --global user.email "a.linguini@ratatouille.fr"

Please use your own name and email address instead of Alfredo’s. And make sure you use the same email associated with your GitHub account.

We will also set the default editor as nano.

BASH 

$ git config --global core.editor "nano -w"

Setup Github

Create a GitHub account

Create a new account at GitHub.com if you do not have one.

Use an email address that you will always have access to (not a work or university address)

Configure SSH access

If you do not have ssh set up for git create a new ssh key and add the key to your github account.

On windows you should do this from the GitBash shell.

To test that your key is correctly configured run:

BASH 

ssh -T git@github.com

VS Code setup

VS Code is a popular Interactive Development Environment (IDE) that we will use to edit our project.

Install: - VS Code

Windows users: - Open VS Code and set GitBash as default terminal

VS Code has a marketplace of community developed extensions. Here are a few that you may find useful when working on Python projects.

Optional extensions: - python language support - git lens - remote ssh - github pull requests - ruff

Create Test-Pypi account

PyPi is the Python Package Index, it hosts publically available python packages.

We will practice uploading packages on a clone of PyPi called test-pypi.

Setup your test-pypi account: - Set up a new account on test.pypi.org - Confirm your email address. - Set up 2-factor authentication.

Create project repo

Create a new repo in your github account called learn-hatch and clone it to your local machine.

Tutor to discuss .gitignore and licences.