00. Getting Started

00. A Note on syntax¶

Throughout this site, you will see code snippets that are formatted in a specific way. This is done to make it easier to read and understand the code. Some examples include:

• # this is a comment in python. Similarly, // this is a comment in javascript. Comments are used to explain what the code does and are ignored by the Python interpreter. It is good practice to leave useful notes in the code to help others (and yourself) understand what the code does.
• [some-reference-here]: Items in the code surrounded by brackets are cases where you should replace the contents, including the brackets, with another value. For example, if you see [pick-a-name], you should replace it with a name of your choice, such as gis or cdp. The brackets are not part of the code and should not be included in your code.

01. Setting up your environment¶

1. Install VSCode

2. Create a new Python environment. I strongly recommend using Conda for this, but you can also use virtualenv. This will protect our system Python installation from any changes we make.

   • If you’re using Conda, you can create a new environment with the following command (with no brackets around the name). You could choose a name like gis or cdp for example:

     conda create -n [pick-a-name] python=3.12

   Be sure to replace [pick-a-name] with a name of your choice for the environment. You can activate the environment (with no brackets around the name) with:

   conda activate [pick-a-name]

   It is important to do this step before installing any packages, as it ensures that all packages are installed in the new environment rather than the system Python installation.

3. Install the required packages for the course. You can do this by running:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

   This will install all the packages listed in the requirements.txt file, which includes all the packages we will use in the course. If you open that file, you will see package names and the versions that we will use. This ensures that everyone is using the same versions of the packages, which helps avoid compatibility issues. (This is a primary reason to use a virtual environment, as packages change over time and we want to avoid breaking changes.)

4. In VSCode, install Ruff. Ruff is a linter that will help us catch errors in our code and enforce coding standards. It is a fast and efficient linter that works well with Python. You can install it by searching for “Ruff” in the VSCode extensions marketplace.

5. In VSCode, install Black Formatter. Using a consistent formatter will help us keep our code clean and readable and reduce minor changes in our commits. We will use Black as our default formatter. You can install it by searching for “Black Formatter” in the VSCode extensions marketplace.

6. Make sure that your vscode settings are set to use Black as the default formatter. You can do this by adding the following lines to your settings.json file:

   "[python]": {
        "editor.formatOnType": true,
        "editor.defaultFormatter": "ms-python.black-formatter",
        "editor.formatOnSave": true
    },
    "[jupyter]": {
        "editor.defaultFormatter": "ms-python.black-formatter"
    },
    "notebook.lineNumbers": "on",
    "ruff.importStrategy": "useBundled",
    "black-formatter.importStrategy": "fromEnvironment",
    "notebook.formatOnSave.enabled": true,
    "black-formatter.showNotifications": "always",
    "notebook.formatOnCellExecution": true,
    "notebook.diff.ignoreMetadata": true,

   This will ensure that your code is automatically formatted with Black when you save it, and that Ruff is used for linting.