Summary and Setup

This is a new lesson built with The Carpentries Workbench.

Summary

Packaging your software is one of the most important steps in a software project to make it both findable and accessible. This course will provide you with an understanding of why and when packaging is useful, what different standards exist to package Python projects and take you through each step of the packaging process.

Software Setup

Python 3

This session will be using Python 3 as the language for examples and demonstrations.

Python can be downloaded from the official website, versions 3.11 or newer are recommended.

Terminal

A terminal interface will also be required, listed below are the recommended ones for each OS. Although terminal commands aren’t an explicit part of the lesson if you are unfamiliar with them guidance will be available during the session. This carpentries lesson is also a good starting place to learn.

Use Command Prompt or PowerShell.

  • Located in Start Menu, or by typing “cmd” or “powershell” in the search bar.
  • Basic commands: dir (list files), cd (change directory), cls (clear screen).
  • To confirm if Python is available, type python --version in Command Prompt or PowerShell.
  • If Python is correctly installed, you should see the correct version number printed in your terminal.

Use Terminal.app.

  • Located in Applications → Utilities → Terminal, or open using Cmd+Space and type “Terminal”.
  • Basic commands: ls (list files), cd (change directory), clear (clear screen).
  • To confirm if Python is available, type python3 --version in your terminal.
  • On newer macOS installations, try both python --version and python3 --version. If it’s correctly installed, you should see the correct version number printed in your terminal.

Use Terminal

  • Open with Ctrl+Alt+T or find it in application menu (often called “Terminal”, or GNOME Terminal”).
  • Basic commands: ls (list files), cd (change directory), clear (clear screen).
  • To confirm if Python is available, type python3 --version in your terminal.
  • On some distributions, python may refer to Python 2, so use python3 to be specific. If it’s correctly installed, you should see the correct version number printed in your terminal.