Software

"In 2024, Python overtook JavaScript as the most popular language on GitHub,
while Jupyter Notebooks skyrocketed"
Octoverse: AI leads Python to top language as the number of global developers surges

Required

Python

We will do examples and exercises in Python, e.g., Anaconda Navigator or Jupyter Hub, within a Jupyter Notebook. Jupyter Hub is hosted by W&M and work is done in your browser. But, given how easy Anaconda is to setup, I recommend installing it on your computer if you’ve never used Python before. If you’re comfortable working from a command line, then I recommend Miniconda over Anaconda Navigator.

Note: Anaconda has very useful apps like spyder, which has a very similar GUI and functionality as RStudio or MATLAB, but is based on interactive Python instead.

Jupyter Notebook

Assignments will be submitted as a Jupyter Notebook, which is available by default via Anaconda Navigator (on any OS).

Jupyter Notebooks may contain cells for both Python (or other languages) and Markdown, and you can run Python code and it will display the output.

Once you install Anaconda, you may open the Anaconda Navigator app and then launch either the Jupyter Lab or Jupyter Notebook app.

Alternatively, you may open those apps from the command line (for either an Anaconda Navigator or Miniconda install)

1. On MacOS, open the terminal app

2. On Windows, open the Anaconda Powershell Prompt

and type, e.g.,

jupyter lab

Typesetting

Markdown

Markdown is a “simple and easy-to-use markup language you can use to format virtually any document.”

\(\LaTeX\)

You can typeset \(\LaTeX\) in a Markdown cell (and also when labeling plots in Python). Here is a \(\LaTeX\) math cheat sheet.

Recommended

Obsidian

For everyday note taking, Obsidian is a nonlinear note taking app and displays markdown in real time. You can embed screenshots and math equations written in \(\LaTeX\), just as in a Jupyter Notebook. You can include code snippets; however, they cannot run like in a Jupyter Notebook.

Jupyter Book

Course materials are available at https://nathrock.github.io/time-series/ (created with Jupyter Book)

Jupyter Book uses markdown files and Jupyter Notebooks as source files to build a static website. The table of contents is defined in _toc.yml.

Once a Python environment (e.g., Anaconda) is installed, you can install Jupyter Book from the command line with

pip install jupyter-book

You can create a template book with

jupyter-book create mynewbook/

Then build the book into a static website with

jupyter-book build mynewbook/

Pressing enter on the index.html (or opening it in a file explorer)

./mynewbook/_build/html/index.html

should open the website in your default browser.

You can then use this static website as the front end for a GitHub repository via GitHub Pages and Actions.