Many modules in the Faculty of Natural Sciences have a programming component, and for some of these you may wish to or need to install and configure the relevant software tools on your own computer. This website contains instructions for the installation and configuration of several packages which are used across many modules in the Faculty. Instructions are provided for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. If you have a Chromebook then most of the software here is not directly installable, but for most recent Chromebooks you can follow the instructions for activating Linux to set up a Linux environment on your computer into which you can install the required software.

• 1. Python
  • 1.1. Python 2 and Python 3
  • 1.2. Installing Python in Windows
  • 1.3. Installing Python on Mac
  • 1.4. Installing Python on Linux or Chrome OS
  • 1.5. Python Virtual Environments
  • 1.6. Recommended folder layout for a Python module
  • 1.7. Using Visual Studio Code with Python
• 2. R and RStudio
  • 2.1. Installing R and RStudio on Windows
  • 2.2. Installing R and RStudio on Mac
  • 2.3. Installing R and RStudio on Linux or Chrome OS
• 3. Visual Studio Code
  • 3.1. Installing Visual Studio Code on Windows
  • 3.2. Installing Visual Studio Code on Mac
  • 3.3. Installing Visual Studio Code on Linux or Chrome OS
  • 3.4. Customizing Visual Studio Code
  • 3.5. Live Share
• 4. Git and GitHub Classroom
  • 4.1. Introduction
  • 4.2. Installing Git on Windows
  • 4.3. Installing Git on Mac
  • 4.4. Installing Git on Linux or Chrome OS
  • 4.5. Check the install
  • 4.6. Configuring Git
  • 4.7. Signing up to GitHub
  • 4.8. Doing coursework using GitHub Classroom
• 5. SSH
  • 5.1. Installing SSH on Windows
  • 5.2. SSH on Mac
  • 5.3. SSH on Linux or Chrome OS
• 6. LaTeX
  • 6.1. Overleaf
  • 6.2. Installing LaTeX on Windows
  • 6.3. Installing LaTeX on Mac
  • 6.4. Installing LaTeX on Linux or ChromeOS
• 7. Obtaining a Linux/Unix environment
  • 7.1. Obtaining Linux/Unix from Windows 10
  • 7.2. Mac is Unix
  • 7.3. Activating Linux on Chrome OS
  • 7.4. Installing Ubuntu Linux
  • 7.5. Tweaking your Ubuntu OS
  • 7.6. Resources
• 8. Opening a terminal
  • 8.1. Windows
  • 8.2. Mac
  • 8.3. Linux
  • 8.4. Chrome OS
  • 8.5. Opening a terminal within Visual Studio Code
• 9. Homebrew for Mac
  • 9.1. Installing homebrew
• 10. Jupyter
  • 10.1. Installing
  • 10.2. Language Kernels
  • 10.3. Adding extensions