Installation Guide for Mac

In this section, you will install the tools and software required for the course.

Before You Begin

First, create accounts for the following services if you have not already:

Additionally, accept the invite for your section on Slack. You will receive the link to your class-specific channel during orientation.

Microsoft Excel

We will be using a free trial version of Microsoft Office 365 for the Excel portion of this class.

  1. Follow the link and install Office 365. You will not be charged anything as long as you cancel before the free trial period ends.

There are also several free alternatives to Microsoft Excel, such as Google Sheets and Apache OpenOffice. You are more than welcome to use one of these, but be aware that we will be using Excel in class and there may be some differences in commands and functionality.

XCode

To download Xcode, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the App Store and search for Xcode.

  2. Download and install Xcode. When the download is complete, open the program.

  3. Agree to the terms of service.

Git

Follow these instructions to set your Git username for every repository on your computer and set your email address for every repository on your computer.

SSH Keys

Generating SSH keys allows developers to interface with certain remote services without having to constantly enter login information. You will set up an SSH key for GitHub.

Without a key, you won’t be able to push your code to GitHub without entering a password each time. And trust us, this would be as irritating as needing a key to open every door in your home.

To complete these steps, you will need to sign up for a GitHub account if you haven't already.

  1. Open Terminal.

  2. To make sure you don’t already have a set of keys on your computer, type the following in your Terminal window. Note: Copying and pasting will not work!

​ ls –al ~/.ssh

  • If no keys pop up, move on to Step 3.
  • If keys do pop up, check that none of them are listed under id_rsa, like in this image:

Terminal window displaying key listed under id_rsa.

  • If you find a key with a matching name, you can either overwrite it by following the next steps, or you can use the same key referenced in Step 8. If you decide not to overwrite it, you will need to remember the password tied to your key.

  • Enter the following command along with your email to generate your keys.

ssh-keygen –t rsa –b 4096 –C "[email protected]"

  1. When prompted to enter a file to save the key, press Enter, and then enter a passphrase for your key. Note: You shouldn’t see any characters appear in the window while typing the password. When you’re finished, your window should look like this:

Terminal window displaying shh key.

  1. Link your key to your machine using a tool called the ssh-agent. Run the following command to test whether the ssh-agent is running on your machine: eval "$(ssh-agent –s)". Your Terminal window should look like this:

Terminal window running eval "$(ssh-agent –s)"

  1. Run the following command: ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa.

  2. When prompted, enter the passphrase associated with the key. Note: If you’ve forgotten this key, go back to Step 3.

  3. To add the key to GitHub, copy the key to your clipboard by entering the following command:

    pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

  4. You shouldn’t see any kind of message when you run this command. If you do, make sure you entered it correctly.

Note Do not copy anything else to your clipboard until all steps are completed. Otherwise, you’ll need to enter the copy command again.

  1. Go to GitHub's SSH key settings. Click New SSH key.

  2. When the form pops up, enter a name for your computer in the Title input. In the Key input, paste the SSH key you copied in Step 8.

  3. To add GitHub to your computer’s list of acceptable SSH hosts, type the following command in your Terminal window: ssh –T [email protected].

    • You should see an RSA fingerprint in your window. If so, enter yes.

VS Code

  1. Go to the setup page on the VS Code website and select Mac as your platform.

  2. Open your Downloads folder and click on the file to unzip.

  3. Drag the file to your Applications folder.

Install Anaconda for Python

We just have one more tool to download before you are ready to go. Use the following link to install Anaconda for Python:

Install Anaconda for Python

You're Done!

That's all for the installations. Your computer has everything that you'll need to begin on the first day of class!