Install On Mac OS X

Note: With the release of macOS Sierra sometime in Fall 2016, we will be updating these installation instructions (if needed) to support the newest Apple operating system. These instructions have been tested on macOS Sierra beta 7. Students are encouraged to upgrade to macOS Sierra when the software is officially released by Apple; the upgrade process should not corrupt your Python 3.5 and WingIDE installation.

Install Miniconda Python 3.5.2

To get started point your browser at

http://conda.pydata.org/docs/install/quick.html

Then,

  1. Click on OS X Miniconda install
  2. Click on the Miniconda installer for OS X
    1. On this page select the 64-bit (bash installer) for Python 3.5 and Mac OS X
    2. Wait for it to download. It will place a file called Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.sh in your downloads folder. On my computer using Safari this is ~/Downloads
    3. Using your browser go back to the previous page
  3. Open at Terminal window. If you don’t know how to do this click * Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal*
  4. Within Terminal “change directories into the folder where your cd ~/Downloads
  5. Now run the bash “shell” program to install Miniconda
bash Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.sh
  1. Scroll through the license (press the space bar to move through quickly), type ‘yes’ to approve the terms, and then accept all the installation defaults.
  2. Close the Terminal program. Then, restart it.
  3. Within Terminal type:

conda install pillow

  1. Enter y at the Proceed prompt.
  2. When the installation completes, close the Terminal window.

Install Wing IDE and Connect It to Miniconda Python

The second half of the installation is the Wing IDE development environment. This is the software that you use to write, edit and test your Python programs. Wing IDE calls Python to actually run the program. Therefore, we have to download and install Wing IDE and then tie it to the Miniconda version of Python.

  1. Go to http://wingware.com/downloads/wingide-101
  2. Download the installer for your operating system. For Mac OS X this downloads an installation dmg package. Double click on it to install and follow the instructions. As with miniconda, you may need to answer of few questions and accept the license agreement. You should use the default settings.
  3. Open the Wing IDE application. We’ll explore this application in lecture and in lab, but for now we just need to tell Wing about Miniconda Python. To do this, click on the menu and then Edit -> Configure Python
  4. For the Python Executable click on Custom and then Browse to the location for the Miniconda Python executable. On my Mac this is /Users/stewart/miniconda3/bin/python3.5 See the following
../_images/link-ide-to-python3-mac.png
  1. Ignore the Python Path and all other settings and click OK.
  2. Back in the main Wing IDE it may ask you to restart the python shell. Once you do then you should see at the top of the Python Shell window pane something about “3.5.2 |Continuum Analytics, Inc.” etc. If you have this you are all set and the installation is complete!

Detecting 64-bits versus 32-bits Mac OS X Systems

You are running 64-bit Mac OS X.

Technically, all Apple computers purchased since Q4 2006 have been equipped with 64-bit capable processors. The Mac OS X operating system has supported 64-bit by default since OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, released in 2009. The upgrade to the latest operating system for your computer is available for free, directly from Apple, since the release of OS X 10.9 Mavericks in 2013.